Digital Sovereignty in the BRICS Countries: How the Global South and Emerging Power Alliances Are Reshaping Digital Governance
Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press (2025), xxix, 282 pp.
Contains bibliogr. pp. 239-273, index
Series: Communication, Society and Politics
ISBN 978-1-00-953108-5 (ebook); 978-1-009-53112-2 (pbk)
In a world where digital development and policymaking are dominated by Silicon Valley tech giants, the BRICS countries - Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa - play an increasingly important role. With forty percent of the world's population and twenty-five percent of global GDP, these nations possess vast troves of personal data. Yet, their conceptions, narratives, and initiatives of digital sovereignty remain understudied. This volume is the first to explore digital sovereignty from a Global South perspective and offers a forward-looking take on what a world less dependent on Silicon Valley might look like. It brings together excellent analyses of BRICS digital sovereignty issues, from historical imaginaries to up-to-date conceptualizations, e-payment to smart cities, legal analysis to geopolitical assessment. By offering neglected perspectives from the Global South, this book makes important contributions to the digital sovereignty debate. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core
1 Introduction: Contesting Digital Sovereignty: Untangling a Complex and Multifaceted Concept / Min Jiang and Luca Belli, 1
PART I. STATE-CENTRIC FORMATIONS OF DIGITAL SOVEREIGNTY
2 Digital Sovereignty in China, Russia, and India: From NWICO to SCO and BRICS / Johannes Thumfart, 41
3 The Spatial Expansion of China’s Digital Sovereignty: Extraterritoriality and Geopolitics / Wanshu Cong, 63
4 South African Digital Sovereignty at the Crossroad of Securitization and Development / Enrico Calandro, 81
PART II. TECHNO-ECONOMIC STRUCTURINGS OF DIGITAL SOVEREIGNTY
5 Digital Sovereignty and Payments: A Case Study of the National Payments Corporation of India / Venkatesh Hariharan and Sarayu Natarajan, 105
6 Digital Statecraft of Middle Powers: Tech Landscape and Digital Sovereignty in Brazil and India / Vashishtha Doshi and Henrique Estides Delgado, 124
7 A Modulated Approach to Digital Sovereignty: Exploring Huawei-Led Smart City Initiatives in South Africa and Italy / Stefano Calzati, 148
PART III. GRASSROOTS CONTESTATIONS OF DIGITAL SOVEREIGNTY
8 Circumventing the “Sovereignization” of the Russian Internet: Toward an Infrastructure-Based Sociology of Digital Sovereignty and Its Resistances in Russia / Olga Bronnikova, Françoise Daucé, Ksenia Ermoshina,
Valéry Kossov, Benjamin Loveluck, Francesca Musiani, Bella Ostromooukhova, Perrine Poupin, and Anna Zaytseva, 167
9 Brazilian Activism in Mastodon: Sovereignty Discourses between Cyberlibertarianism and State-Centrism / Tales Tomaz, 190
10 Conclusion: Digital Sovereignty in the BRICS: Structuring Self-Determination, Cybersecurity, and Control / Luca Belli and Min Jiang, 214
PART I. STATE-CENTRIC FORMATIONS OF DIGITAL SOVEREIGNTY
2 Digital Sovereignty in China, Russia, and India: From NWICO to SCO and BRICS / Johannes Thumfart, 41
3 The Spatial Expansion of China’s Digital Sovereignty: Extraterritoriality and Geopolitics / Wanshu Cong, 63
4 South African Digital Sovereignty at the Crossroad of Securitization and Development / Enrico Calandro, 81
PART II. TECHNO-ECONOMIC STRUCTURINGS OF DIGITAL SOVEREIGNTY
5 Digital Sovereignty and Payments: A Case Study of the National Payments Corporation of India / Venkatesh Hariharan and Sarayu Natarajan, 105
6 Digital Statecraft of Middle Powers: Tech Landscape and Digital Sovereignty in Brazil and India / Vashishtha Doshi and Henrique Estides Delgado, 124
7 A Modulated Approach to Digital Sovereignty: Exploring Huawei-Led Smart City Initiatives in South Africa and Italy / Stefano Calzati, 148
PART III. GRASSROOTS CONTESTATIONS OF DIGITAL SOVEREIGNTY
8 Circumventing the “Sovereignization” of the Russian Internet: Toward an Infrastructure-Based Sociology of Digital Sovereignty and Its Resistances in Russia / Olga Bronnikova, Françoise Daucé, Ksenia Ermoshina,
Valéry Kossov, Benjamin Loveluck, Francesca Musiani, Bella Ostromooukhova, Perrine Poupin, and Anna Zaytseva, 167
9 Brazilian Activism in Mastodon: Sovereignty Discourses between Cyberlibertarianism and State-Centrism / Tales Tomaz, 190
10 Conclusion: Digital Sovereignty in the BRICS: Structuring Self-Determination, Cybersecurity, and Control / Luca Belli and Min Jiang, 214
