Governing digital circulation: the quest for data control and sovereignty in Germany

• Published in: Territory, politics, governance Vol. 11; no. 6; pp. 1100 - 1120
• Main Authors: Dammann, Finn, Glasze, Georg
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Abingdon Routledge 18.08.2023; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: Competition; Competitive advantage; Competitiveness; Data; data flows; data politics; Democracy; digital circulation; digital sovereignty; Genealogy; Germany; Information society; Information technology; Internet; Sovereignty; State intervention; Statehood; Telecommunications; territory; Germany
• ISSN: 2162-2671; 2162-268X
• DOI: 10.1080/21622671.2022.2141850

How is the circulation of digital data to be governed? This question is the subject of often conflicting political rationalities. Focusing on internet and data politics in Germany, we identify fundamental problematizations in governing data circulation on the basis of a mixed-methods analysis of the public-political discussion. In doing so, we elaborate the genealogy of a tension between two political rationalities. On the one hand, there are the political rationalities of a global information society since the 1990s. These have propelled the free circulation of data across national borders and Germany's integration into an international and competitive telecommunications and information technology market. In these rationalities, state intervention in the circulation of data is seen as a dangerous obstacle to economic competitiveness and social prosperity. On the other hand, there are the political rationalities of a digitally sovereign statehood since the early 2010s. These consider state intervention in data circulation as a guarantor of economic prosperity, democracy and the ability to govern. We argue that prominent political technologies of territorial regulation of data circulation currently discussed and experimented within Germany can be interpreted as attempts to harmonize this field of tension.