Book Description:
Open Access downloading: https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/digital-sovereignty-in-the-brics-countries/27E9FD7E4579C76C8D4BA52F7670B431
Digital Sovereignty in the BRICS Countries: How the Global South and Emerging Power Alliances Are Reshaping Digital Governance (Cambridge University Press, 2025, Edited by Min Jiang and Luca Belli)
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.
Hard Copy Discounts
In case hard copies are preferred, please order from www.cambridge.org/9781009531122 and enter the code DSBC2024 upon checkout. The paperback, after discount, is $33.59 till September 2025.
Table of Contents:
Chapter 1 Introduction by Min Jiang and Luca Belli
“Contesting Digital Sovereignty: Untangling a Complex and Multifaceted Concept”
Part I – State-centric Formations of Digital Sovereignty
Chapter 2 by Johannes Thumfart
“Digital Sovereignty in China, Russia, and India: From NWICO to SCO and BRICS”
Chapter 3 by Wanshu Cong
“The Spatial Expansion of China’s Digital Sovereignty: Extraterritoriality and Geopolitics”
Chapter 4 by Enrico Calandro
“South African Digital Sovereignty at the Crossroad of Securitization and Development”
Part II – Techno-economic Structurings of Digital Sovereignty
Chapter 5 by Venkatesh Hariharan and Sarayu Natarajan
“Digital Sovereignty and Payments: A Case Study of the National Payments Corporation of India”
Chapter 6 by Vashishtha Doshi and Henrique Estides Delgado
“Digital Statecraft of Middle Powers: Tech Landscape and Digital Sovereignty in Brazil and India”
Chapter 7 by Stefano Calzati
“A Modulated Approach to Digital Sovereignty: Exploring Huawei-Led Smart City Initiatives in South Africa and Italy”
Part III – Grassroots Contestations of Digital Sovereignty
Chapter 8 by Olga Bronnikova, Françoise Daucé, Ksenia Ermoshina, Valéry Kossov, Benjamin Loveluck, Francesca Musiani, Bella Ostromooukhova, Perrine Poupin, Anna Zaytseva
“Circumventing the ‘Sovereignization’ of the Russian Internet: Toward an Infrastructure-Based Sociology of Digital Sovereignty and Its Resistances in Russia”
Chapter 9 by Tales Tomaz
“Brazilian Activism in Mastodon: Sovereignty Discourses between Cyberlibertarianism and State-Centrism”
Chapter 10 Conclusion by Luca Belli and Min Jiang
“Digital Sovereignty in the BRICS: Structuring Self-Determination, Cybersecurity, and Control”