[Air-L] ICA Postconference CFP: Digital Sovereignty for Whom? Platforms and Infrastructures in a Global Context

[Olga Boichak]

Dear Colleagues,



Please find below the call for submissions to our ICA Postconference, *Digital
Sovereignty for Whom? Platforms and Infrastructures in a Global Context*,
deadline:* 15 February.*



https://www.icahdq.org/mpage/ICA24-DigitalSovereignty



Digital sovereignty refers to a countries’ autonomy and control over its
digital data, systems and infrastructures. It is a term that has been
deployed widely—by liberal states to assert citizens’ rights over the data
they produce and by authoritarian states to justify surveilling and
controlling their populations. At the same time, flows and forms of digital
life offer new constructions of territoriality, governance, and identity,
on more personal and humanistic terms. This post-conference brings together
interdisciplinary perspectives to assess how new actors, technologies and
global power struggles have shaped the discourses, architectures, and
practices through which nation-states exercise and experience digital
sovereignty.

Recent geopolitical crises necessitate a re-thinking of digital sovereignty
and its implications for digital policy and international affairs. In
contemporary armed conflicts, like in the case of Russia’s war against
Ukraine, where battles unfold across all layers of the digital
communication spectrum, control over digital data flows has become a key
strategic objective. In this context, digital sovereignty can be used to
justify policies that facilitate the expansion of state power beyond
established territorial borders.

At the same time, how critical socio-technical systems are governed and by
whom also determines experiences of digital sovereignty. UNESCO's 2023
*Internet
for Trust* report calls for the inclusion of diverse perspectives in the
global governance of digital platforms. While this recommendation is
admirable, it remains unclear how it can be achieved in practice. As we
have seen from the last twenty years of internet research, well-meaning
governance principles often lack meaningful consultation with the Global
South and can be derailed by market forces. Moreover, the continued
decentralisation of key internet technologies and postcolonial data
practices suggest sovereigns might be reconfiguring away from statist
assumptions.

By bringing together researchers from diverse jurisdictions, this
post-conference aims to explore a range of inclusive and decolonial
approaches to digital platform policy and governance, as well as global
perspectives on human rights, state power and territoriality under various
digital sovereignty regimes.

We invite participants to submit a 500-word abstract on topics that fall
within the scope of platforms and infrastructure in a global context via
email to sicss.admin at sydney.edu.au by 15 February 2024.

Hosted by the Media & Communications discipline at The University of Sydney
and the Critical Digital Infrastructures and Interfaces group at Deakin
University, selected participants will be invited to present their work at
the post-conference and to submit their papers to a special issue of *Policy
& Internet Journal*.

*Date*
Wednesday, 26 June, 2024

*Location*
The University of Sydney/Hybrid
Camperdown, NSW

*Transportation*
The University of Sydney Camperdown campus is located walking distance from
Sydney’s central station and CBD. There are numerous hotel and public
transport options available around the campus.

*This post-conference is organised by:*
Joanne Gray (The U of Sydney)
Olga Boichak (The U of Sydney)
Jonathan Hutchinson (The U of Sydney)
Siva Vaidhyanathan (The U of Virginia)
Admire Mare (The U of Johannesburg)
Luke Heemsbergen (Deakin U)
Toija Cinque (Deakin U)



We hope to see you there!

Olga



*Olga BOICHAK*, PhD



Senior lecturer
<https://www.sydney.edu.au/arts/about/our-people/academic-staff/olga-boichak.html>,
ARC DECRA fellow

Director, Computational Social Science Lab
<https://computational-social-science.sydney.edu.au/>

Early Career Research Network
<https://intranet.sydney.edu.au/arts/research/ECR-network.html> coordinator

Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences

*University of Sydney*



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