Abstract
In recent years, various governments have been trying to subordinate the Internet to the system of the Westphalian state order. This chapter seeks to add a new layer to the analysis of this conflict over state sovereignty and the global digital order. It draws on network theory as an alternative analytical lens to study the reconfiguration of power relations that define the Internet as a technical, social and economic network, and its governance. We review key conflicts and developments that shaped the Internet’s history, from the Internet exceptionalists’ visions in the 1990s to states’ recent pursuits of digital sovereignty and trace how states, as well as private companies, seek to fundamentally reconfigure the dominant logic of the Internet and its sub-networks to expand and institutionalise their power position. We thus highlight a deeper layer of conflict: The current struggles over the techno-political configuration of the Internet are not only influenced by the conflict between liberal and authoritarian visions of the Internet; they are also the result of continuous tensions between processes of centralisation and decentralisation of the Internet’s technical foundations and its governance. As an effect of these dynamics, we currently witness a pluralisation of power while, at the same time, new points of centralised control emerge.
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Notes
- 1.
Castells distinguishes between four forms of power in networks: networking power, network power, networked power and network-making power. The latter form is of particular importance since it is exercised by the actors who can determine the logic of the network (programmers) or change the logic of the network (switchers); these actors can themselves represent networks (Castells, 2016, p. 12). Our ideas of how power is exercised in networks are inspired by all four forms and take up the idea of reconfiguring network logics.
- 2.
A similar version of this chapter is published as: Pohle, J., & Voelsen, D. (2022a). Centrality and power. The struggle over the techno-political configuration of the Internet and the global digital order. Policy & Internet, 14(1), 13–27. https://doi.org/10.1002/poi3.296. A more detailled version in German has first been published as: Pohle, J., & Voelsen, D. (2022b). Fragmentierung des Internets? Zentralisierung von Teilnetzen und Wandel der globalen digitalen Ordnung. Berliner Journal für Soziologie, 32(3), 455–487.
- 3.
While we also consider companies that operate at the level of the Internet infrastructure, for example, by providing Internet access or operating submarine data cables, we primarily focus on those that operate at the level of Internet applications, for example, by providing digital tools and services, such as Alphabet, Facebook or Alibaba.
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Pohle, J., Voelsen, D. (2024). Centrality and Power: The Struggle over the Techno-Political Configuration of the Internet and the Global Digital Order. In: Padovani, C., Wavre, V., Hintz, A., Goggin, G., Iosifidis, P. (eds) Global Communication Governance at the Crossroads. Global Transformations in Media and Communication Research - A Palgrave and IAMCR Series. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-29616-1_4
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