Contesting Digital Sovereignty: Untangling a Complex and Multifaceted Concept

Abstract

This book project, the first of its kind to explore the digital sovereignty debate in the BRICS countries, attempts to untangle this complex and multifaceted concept from a Global South epistemic lens. First, we debate how the core pillars underpinning the public law's construction of national institution and governance have become more uncertain when they clash with global phenomena. Especifically, when they clash with digital technologies' capacity to skirt application of national legislation. 

 Our goal here is to map the wide range of interpretations of  the central concept of "digital sovereignty" in the digital era from a BRICS perspective, and to shine a spotlight on how different types of digital sovereigns besides the states are claiming sovereignty and exercising their power over digital infrastructure, data, services, and protocols in BRICS countries. Contained here is an excellent collection of cutting-edge academic analyses of key digital sovereignty issues in the BRICS countries. We provide an account of why an exploration of the digital sovereignty debate in the BRICS countries is particularly important and relevant at this moment in time. And, finally, we outline seven major theoretical perspectives on digital sovereignty that serve to elucidate the different digital sovereigns operating on different planes. 

Keywords: Digital Sovereignty, Global South Epistemic Lens, BRICS, Digital Governance, Internet Governance