DIGISOV

Digital infrastructures increasingly play a crucial role in the government of populations, involving issues which range from data management and economic competition to regulation of the public sphere and surveillance and security. Digital governance, the administration and design of these technologies, has historically relied on a liberal paradigm favouring the “free flow of information” and minimising government involvement. However, in the context of a reshuffling of globalisation, growing calls for a (re)assertion of “digital sovereignty” are being voiced: government intervention in digital governance is expected to defend citizen and consumer interests, stimulate competitive advantages and innovation, and manage security matters and strategic issues. Digital sovereignty thus challenges the original model of the “Silicon Valley open internet”. A polysemic notion however, it has found currency in both authoritarian countries and liberal democracies, and has entailed contrasting regulatory, policy and technical options. The aim of this project is to provide better empirical and theoretical understanding, informed by the social sciences, of the production and circulation of digital norms, as well as a more thorough appreciation of state involvement in shaping these norms. It will go beyond strictly legal interpretations of digital sovereignty and its rhetorical uses in political discourses, by understanding it “from within” as an ongoing series of negotiations, struggles and controversies. The project will develop a comparative perspective between several key actors at the national or supranational level: the EU (and member states), Russia and China, as well as the U.S. as a dominant model.