Work

Reassessing “infrastructuring digital sovereignty”: digital self-determination as a set of infrastructure-embedded practices

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: This perspective contribution takes stock of recent research conducted through the theoretical lens, grounded in science and technology studies (STS) and more specifically infrastructure studies, which I have previously defined as “infrastructuring digital sovereignty” (Musiani, 2022). With this concept, I address “digital sovereignty” beyond its strictly legal interpretations and its rhetorical uses in political discourses by understanding it “from within” as an ongoing series of negotiations, practices, struggles, and controversies embedded in infrastructures, their creation, their development, and their maintenance. The contribution will discuss how, via two recently started projects, French and global interdisciplinary teams seek to provide an empirical and theoretical understanding, informed by the social sciences, of digital sovereignty as a set of processes and co-constructed techniques, practices, and norms “in the making.”

Source: Frontiers in Communication

DOI: 10.3389/fcomm.2025.1562072

Author: Francesca Musiani

Institutions: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Centre Internet et Société

Language: English

Topic: Security, Politics, and Digital Transformation

Subfield: Political Science and International Relations

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDGs: Industry, innovation and infrastructure, Peace, justice, and strong institutions

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $1,418