Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Berliner Institut für empirische Integrations- und Migrationsforschung (BIM)

Preliminary Pogramme

Day 1


Evening Keynote: Reclaiming Digital Sovereignty

with

Cecilia Rikap (UCL)

Day 2
9:30 – 10:15 
Welcome & Project Presentation
with 
Manuela Bojadžijev, Alexander Harder (HU Berlin)

10:30 – 12:30 
Session 1: Scenes, Sites and Landscapes of XG
with 
Alexander Harder (HU Berlin) 
Anna Pillinger, Loren Grbic (JKU Linz) 
Mauricio Rogat (Linköping University)

14:00 - 15:00 
Session 2: Cloud Contestations and Sites of Transitional Infrastructure
with 
Helen V. Pritchard (FHNW Basel) 
Femke Snelting (TITiPI)

15:30 – 17:30 
Session 3: Reconfigurations of Community and Sovereignty
with 
Roland Atzmüller, Fabienne Décieux, Lukas Egger (JKU Linz) 
Kim West, Karin Krifors (Linköping University)

18:00 – 19:30 
Closing Session: On the Imagined Communities of Digital Infrastructure
with 
Manuela Bojadžijev (HU Berlin) 
Stefan Jonsson (Linköping University)



Organised by: Manuela Bojadžijev, Alexander Harder, Gloria Albrecht, Marthe Völker (Institute for European Ethnology & Berlin Institute for Migration Research, Humboldt-University Berlin) 

In Cooperation with: 
The Institute for Technology in the Public Interest

SoLiXG: The Social Life of XG - Digital infrastructures and the reconfiguration of sovereignty and imagined communities is funded by the Collaboration of Humanities and Social Sciences in Europe (CHANSE, 2022-2025), sponsored by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, the Austrian Science Fund, the Economic and Social Research Council and Arts and Humanities Research Council of the United Kingdom and FORTE: Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare. Project Lead: Prof. Manuela Bojadžijev, Humboldt-University Berlin. Principle Investigators: Prof. Roland Atzmüller, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Prof. Helen V. Pritchard, University of Plymouth, Prof. Stefan Jonsson, Linköping University.  

Background

In a time when globalisation appears to be over, digital technologies are increasingly being constructed as infrastructure for national and European security, for resilience against crises and catastrophes, and for ‘digital’ or ‘technological' sovereignty. The EU invests heavily in developing telecommunications standards and patents, maintaining independent cloud-services and securing supply chains for microchips. Designing, maintaining and expanding digital infrastructure is becoming an indispensable geopolitical and geoeconomic strategy. 



From 5G to 6G to XG, digital technologies are constantly updated. At each iteration, they promise greater bandwidth and connectivity, reduced latency and improved technical ‘solutions’ for all of today's pressing issues at once: climate crises and public health, catastrophes and transport, energy provision and human mobility. Over the past few years, the research project The Social Life of XG:  Digital infrastructures and the reconfiguration of sovereignty and imagined communities has investigated initiatives concerning digital and technological sovereignty across multiple sites in Europe, including semiconductor fabs in Germany and Austria, 5G and 6G research and development laboratories, and lithium-ion battery facilities in Sweden. Adopting an anthropological and interdisciplinary approach, we have traced how 'digital sovereignty' is implemented in practice, encounters challenges and potentially reconfigures ideas of community and sovereignty. 

Over two days, we will present and discuss research findings at our closing conference on October 13th and 14th. Day 1 will kick off the event with an online keynote lecture by Cecilia Rikap (University College London) on 'digital sovereignty' and corporate power. Day 2 will be a full-day offline event held at the Institute for European Ethnology at Humboldt-University Berlin. 

Registration: Please register via E-mail until September 10th and specify whether you would like to participate in the online keynote and/or in the offline event at HU Berlin: albrecgl@hu-berlin.de

You can find the preliminary programme below, and a more detailed program and panel descriptions on our website shortly. 

Manuela Bojadžijev & Alexander Harder