Technological Sovereignty

About the Book

In today’s economy, Big Tech reaps enormous profits selling our personal data and controlling our online tools. The structure relies on a form of racial and informational capitalism rooted in the legacy of colonialism that creates inequalities inside countries and between the Global North and Global South.

Sara Schoonmaker illuminates the system’s inner workings by examining technology-related struggles in global trade, COVID-19 vaccines, the Internet, and use of personal data. The World Trade Organization and other neoliberal institutions protect corporate power while limiting access to important tools. Schoonmaker’s analysis explores a hopeful alternative that allows communities and nations to assert more control over the technologies they need. As she shows, state-centered policies have the potential to improve access to technology by challenging corporate power. At the same time, nonproprietary approaches like free software and community broadband encourage the knowledge-sharing needed to create fair systems that resist ongoing exploitation.

Ambitious and timely, Technological Sovereignty draws on a wide-ranging group of voices to offer a roadmap for a more just digital future.