Digitisation and sovereignty in humanitarian space: Technologies, territories and tensions
Martin,Aaron Sharma,Gargi de Souza,Siddharth Peter Taylor,Linnet van Eerd,Boudewijn McDonald,Sean Martin Marelli,Massimo Cheesman,Margie Scheel,Stephan Dijstelbloem,Huub
Martin,Aaron
Sharma,Gargi
de Souza,Siddharth Peter
Taylor,Linnet
van Eerd,Boudewijn
McDonald,Sean Martin
Marelli,Massimo
Cheesman,Margie
Scheel,Stephan
Dijstelbloem,Huub
Abstract
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.
Description
Date
2022-03-20
Journal Title
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Publisher
Research Projects
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Keywords
BLOCKCHAIN
Citation
Martin, A, Sharma, G, de Souza, S P, Taylor, L, van Eerd, B, McDonald, S M, Marelli, M, Cheesman, M, Scheel, S & Dijstelbloem, H 2022, 'Digitisation and sovereignty in humanitarian space : Technologies, territories and tensions', Geopolitics. https://doi.org/10.1080/14650045.2022.2047468