Rescuing Europe’ and ‘balancing powers

A postcolonial critique of European digital sovereignty

Datos Bibliográficos

ID7761693
AutoresMauricio Rogat (0009-0000-1832-5477, Linköpings Universitet REMESO, Sweden, autor de correspondencia)
Año2025
Volumen44
Número3
Páginas445-462
Fecha de publicación2025-07-08
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaEnvironment and Planning D Society and Space (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0263-7758 • E-ISSN: 1472-3433
EditorialSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/02637758251356752
OpenAlexW4412101178
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas1
Referencias citadas56

In the last decades, the term digital sovereignty, together with technological sovereignty and strategic autonomy, has become common vocabulary within the EU. While originating in discussions about global computation and the erosion of national sovereignty, the discourses underpinning the use of digital sovereignty resonate with earlier colonial notions of ‘rescuing Europe’ and the ‘balance of powers’ recurring throughout the history of European integration. The discussions about EU digital sovereignty and its infrastructuring remind us of the EU's colonial past by re-inserting so-called European values into the expansion of digital infrastructures in Europe and beyond. While the literature studying the emergence of European digital sovereignty showcases how the use of the term underlines and confirms a geopolitical turn within the EU, it has not yet discussed its historical colonial connections. This article demonstrates, first, that the sociotechnical imaginaries attached to the infrastructuring of the EU's digital sovereignty re-actualise an earlier nexus between the European integration project and colonial extractive infrastructures predating the creation of the EU. Second, with the case of the Global Gateway, this article shows how this nexus gains new life through the infrastructuring of digital sovereignty, again unfolding in the Global South

Business · International trade · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Sovereignty · Cybersecurity and Cyber Warfare Studies · European Union Policy and Governance · German Security and Defense Policies · Law

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