Digitisation and Sovereignty in Humanitarian Space

Technologies, Territories and Tensions

Bibliographic Data

ID3948263
AuthorsAaron Martins (0009-0000-4073-9182, Tilburg University, corresponding author), Aaron E Martin (0000-0001-5502-2571, Tilburg University), Gargi Sharma (0000-0002-8666-7820, Tilburg University), Siddharth Peter De Souza (0000-0003-4299-4878, Tilburg University), Linnet Taylor (0000-0001-7856-7611, Tilburg University), Boudewijn Van Eerd (Tilburg University), Sean Martin Mcdonald (Center for International Governance Innovation), Sean McDonald (Centre for International Governance Innovation), Massimo Marelli (0000-0001-5831-5441, International Committee of the Red Cross), Margie Cheesman (0000-0001-9521-4658, University of Oxford), Stephan Scheel (0000-0002-5065-3726, University of Duisburg-Essen), Huub Dijstelbloem (0000-0002-4232-9803, University of Amsterdam)
Year2023
Volume28
Issue3
Pages1362-1397
Publication date2023-05-27
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueGeopolitics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1465-0045 • E-ISSN: 1557-3028
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/14650045.2022.2047468
PMID37153004
OpenAlexW4220659811
LanguageEN
Citations received22
References cited52

Debates are ongoing on the limits of - and possibilities for - sovereignty in the digital era. While most observers spotlight the implications of the Internet, cryptocurrencies, artificial intelligence/machine learning and advanced data analytics for the sovereignty of nation states, a critical yet under examined question concerns what digital innovations mean for authority, power and control in the humanitarian sphere in which different rules, values and expectations are thought to apply. This forum brings together practitioners and scholars to explore both conceptually and empirically how digitisation and datafication in aid are (re)shaping notions of sovereign power in humanitarian space. The forum's contributors challenge established understandings of sovereignty in new forms of digital humanitarian action. Among other focus areas, the forum draws attention to how cyber dependencies threaten international humanitarian organisations' purported digital sovereignty. It also contests the potential of technologies like blockchain to revolutionise notions of sovereignty in humanitarian assistance and hypothesises about the ineluctable parasitic qualities of humanitarian technology. The forum concludes by proposing that digital technologies deployed in migration contexts might be understood as 'sovereignty experiments'. We invite readers from scholarly, policy and practitioner communities alike to engage closely with these critical perspectives on digitisation and sovereignty in humanitarian space

Political science · Politics · Sociology · Sovereignty · Computer Science · Foucault, Power, and Ethics · Historical and Contemporary Political Dynamics · Law · Migration, Refugees, and Integration

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