[Commlist] Call for Papers, special issue of Terminal on activists, digital sovereignty and the post-Soviet space

The ResisTIC (resistic.fr <http://resistic.fr>) research team is pleased 
to announce the following call for articles for the Terminal journal 
(open access, free-of-charge for authors). A French version is available 
here (https://journals.openedition.org/terminal/6642 
<https://journals.openedition.org/terminal/6642>) and contributions are 
accepted in both French and English.

Activists facing “digital sovereignty”. Reactions and new mobilizations 
in the post-Soviet space


Call for papers for a special issue of the Terminaljournal


Issue editors

Olga Bronnikova (associate professor, University Grenoble-Alpes), Bella 
Ostromooukhova (associate professor, Sorbonne University), Perrine 
Poupin (post-doctoral researcher, ANR ResisTIC/Sorbonne University), 
Anna Zaytseva (associate professor, University Toulouse Jean Jaurès)

Abstract


The digital space, initially managed in a global,  international and 
multi-stakeholder way, has in recent years been pushed towards a dynamic 
of national “digital sovereignties”. States are seeking to extend their 
sovereignty in and through digital space, to legislate, impose 
constraints or guarantee freedoms.

In this issue, we aim to explore the reactions to this trend by activist 
individuals and groups in various post-Soviet countries. These phenomena 
may include mobilizations for the protection of human rights in the 
digital age, media activism, forms of action led by technical experts 
and hackers, or reactions from more traditional activist and political 
worlds to the proliferation of digital tools and their 
“sovereignization”. We are also interested in actors’ mobilizations in 
favor of a sovereign national cyberspace that should meet security and 
“moral” criteria specific to each nation.


Argument

The digital space, initially managed outside traditional models of 
State-based regulation, has been subject to a push towards 
sovereignization for several years now. In the Russian case, this 
tendency gave rise to a law known as the “Sovereign Internet” bill in 
2019. Confronted by various forms of extraterritorial domination of the 
Internet by major Internet service players and by transnational 
institutions (ICANN, RIPE NCC, IETF, W3C) of Internet governance, States 
are seeking to strengthen their influence, extend their sovereignty in 
and through the digital world, legislate, impose constraints or 
guarantee freedoms.


The notion of "digital sovereignty", which is now part of the discourse 
of various public and private actors involved in the development of 
digital technologies, also affects the relationships between States. The 
Snowden revelations in 2013, bringing to light the mass surveillance 
practices carried out globally by the United States National Security 
Agency, have provided new justifications for authorities in different 
states to control their national Internet spaces and protect them 
against external threats . The claim of a state or intergovernmental 
authority over cyberspace now seems to be part of a global framework for 
the interpretation of cybersecurity or information security, showing a 
clear trend towards the “militarization” of the digital space -- and 
sometimes even heralding a cyber-”arms race”.


In the post-Soviet space, the “sovereignization” of the Internet could 
be interpreted as a further step in taking control of citizens' 
communications and, more broadly, of the Internet space, as it leads to 
a proliferation of various forms of limitations of freedoms and 
repressions, including challenges to the right to anonymity and 
encryption, blockages of entire sites and platforms,  prison sentences 
for content published in national or international social media, 
confiscation of computer equipment, and wiretapping. The legal framework 
for such repression varies from country to country. While the 
similarities between national legislations within the post-soviet States 
through the circulation of practices and legal transfers between its 
member countries, are often highlighted, their application remains 
subject to the specificities of each situation and the temporalities of 
each national context.


The initiatives of the Russian State encounter multifaceted resistance 
from different actors, find support and generate controversy. In this 
issue, we propose to explore the ways in which activists in different 
post-Soviet countries are responding to the dynamics generated by 
sovereignty strategies. These include mobilizations for the defense of 
human rights in the digital age, media activism that views Internet 
infrastructure as an object of struggle, forms of action led by 
technical experts (ISPs, developers) and hackers, and reactions from the 
more "classical" activist and political world. We are also interested in 
actors (religious movements, various moral entrepreneurs and citizen 
protection organizations) mobilizing in favor of a sovereign national 
cyberspace allegedly able to better respond to security and "moral" 
criteria specific to each nation.

In order to apprehend the multiplicity of profiles of civil society 
actors involved in the issues of "digital sovereignty" within the 
post-Soviet space, publications in this issue, based on empirical 
research, will answer preferably, but not exclusively, the following 
questions:

- Who are the actors, critics and mobilizations opposed to or advocating 
the sovereignty of the Internet? How do these groups position themselves 
in the local, national and international associative and political 
landscape, and how do their actions, both online and offline, situate 
them in relation to state authorities and economic actors?

- What are the tactics, repertoires or political styles of action of 
these activists as well as their practices of circumventing new 
restrictions on online exchanges?

- What are the meanings attributed by different activists to the terms 
"digital freedoms" and "free Internet"?

- How do these multiple actors seize the law and mobilize notions 
emerging at the international level ("protection of personal data", 
"fake news", "right to be forgotten", etc.) to defend themselves or to 
sue representatives of the authorities at different scales?

- Faced with surveillance and repression, how are new IT and physical 
security practices developed by these various players? And, conversely, 
how and by whom are security concepts mobilized to defend a "sovereign 
Internet"?

  - What is the role these activists attribute to Silicon Valley 
giants, and how do they perceive the relationship of these technical 
actors with the State?

This issue proposal is led by the ANR ResisTIC project team (Net 
resisters. Criticism and evasion of digital borders in Russia).


    Submission guidelines

Authors wishing to submit an abstract (in French or in English) are 
invited to send it, before February 28th 2021, to the following address 
: (resistic.terminal /at/ tutanota.com), with a copy to 
(redaction /at/ revue-terminal.org.In) a proposal of 5,000 to 6,000 signs 
(spaces included), accompanied by a short bio-bibliographical note of 
the author, it will be necessary to specify: the empirical field 
mobilized, the approach and the methods used. The final articles, to be 
submitted by early July 2021, may be written in French or English.


Provisional planning


Mid-December 2020: publication of the open call for papers;

February 28, 2021: Submission of abstracts (5,000 - 6,000 characters 
including spaces) detailing the method and empirical materials used;

Early April 2021: Feedback on proposals;

Early July 2021: Sending of final papers (40,000 characters including 
spaces maximum);

November 30, 2021: Evaluations sent to authors;

March-April 2022: Final publication of the issue.

Instructions to authors can be found onthe journal’s website 
<http://terminal.revues.org/875>. Please send proposals to 
(resistic.terminal /at/ tutanota.com) <mailto:(resistic.terminal /at/ tutanota.com)> 
with a copy to (redaction /at/ revue-terminal.org) 
<mailto:(redaction /at/ revue-terminal.org)>.

Bibliography


Deibert, R. J., & M. Crete-Nishihata, 2012, “Global governance and the 
spread of cyberspace controls”, Global Governance, 18, 339.

Milan, S., 2013, Social Movements and Their Technologies: Wiring Social 
Change, Londres, Palgrave Macmillan.

Mueller, M., 2017, Will the Internet Fragment? Sovereignty, 
globalization and cyberspace, Cambridge, Polity Press

Nocetti, J., 2015, "Contest and conquest: Russia and global internet 
governance." International Affairs91, 111–130.

Pétin, P. & F. Tréguer, 2018, "Building and defending the alternative 
Internet: the birth of the digital rights movement in France", Internet 
histories, Taylor & Francis, pp.1-18

Tufekci, Z., 2017, Twitter and Tear Gas: The Power and Fragility of 
Networked Protest, New Haven, Yale University Press.



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