TOWARDS AN INFRASTRUCTURE-BASED SOCIOLOGY OF DIGITAL SOVEREIGNTY PRACTICES: THE 'PILOT CASE' OF RUSSIA

"Digital sovereignty" is the idea that states should “reaffirm” theirauthority over the Internet and protect their citizens, institutions, and businesses fromthe multiple challenges to their nation’s self-determination in the digital sphere.According to this principle, sovereignty depends on more than supranational alliances orinternational legal instruments, military might or trade: it depends on locally-owned,controlled and operated innovation ecosystems, able to increase states’ technical andeconomic independence and autonomy. Presently, digital sovereignty is understood primarilyas a legal concept and a set of political discourses. As a consequence, it is predominantlyanalysed by political science, international relations and international law. However, thestudy of digital sovereignty as a set of infrastructures and socio-material practices hasbeen largely neglected. In this proposal, I argue that the concept of (digital) sovereigntyshould also be studied via the infrastructure-embedded “situated practices” of variouspolitical and economic projects which aim to establish autonomous digital infrastructures ina hyperconnected world. Although this contribution is also a call for a wider andcomparative research programme, I will focus here on the “pilot case” of Russia, which isthe subject of an ongoing research project. Ultimately, the analysis ofinfrastructure-embedded digital sovereignty practices in Russia shows how the Russiandiscourse on Internet sovereignty as a centralized and top-down apparatus paradoxically openup technical and legal opportunities for mundane resistances and the existence of “parallel”Runets, where particular instantiations of informational freedom are stillpossible.