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7. Digital Networks, State Authority, and Politics

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Territory, Authority, Rights
This chapter is in the book Territory, Authority, Rights
7DIGITAL NETWORKS, STATE AUTHORITY,AND POLITICS The rapid proliferationof global computer-based networks andthe digitization of a broad array of economic and political activities that nowcan circulate in these networks raise questions about the effectiveness of cur-rent framings for state authority and democratic participation. In a context ofmultiple partial and specific changes linked to globalization, these forms ofdigitization have enabled the ascendance of subnational scales, such as theglobal city, and supranational scales, such as global markets, where previouslythe national scale was dominant. These rescalings do not always parallel ex-isting formalizations of state authority. The overall outcome might be described as a destabilizing of olderformal hierarchies of scale and an emergence of not fully formalized newones. Older hierarchies of scale dating from the period that saw the ascen-dance of the nation-state continue to operate; they are typically organized interms of institutional size and territorial scope: from the international downto the national, the regional, the urban, and the local. But today’s rescalingdynamics cut across institutional size and across the institutional encase-ments of territory produced by the formation of national states. At its mostgeneral these developments raise a number of questions about their impacton the regulatory capacities of states and about their potential for undermin-ing state authority as it has come to be constituted over the last two cen-turies. More analytically we might ask whether these developments signalnew types of imbrications between authority and territory, and more specifi-cally, place. This chapter examines these questions by focusing on how digitiza-tion has enabled the strengthening of older actors and spaces and the forma-tion of novel ones capable of engaging the competence, scope, and exclusiv-ity of state authority. The particular empirical cases examined to get at theselarger questions are global finance and the new types of cross-border activistpolitics, in both of which digitization has been transformative. To some extent12Sassen_ch07 328-377.qxd 3/6/08 11:47 AM Page 328

7DIGITAL NETWORKS, STATE AUTHORITY,AND POLITICS The rapid proliferationof global computer-based networks andthe digitization of a broad array of economic and political activities that nowcan circulate in these networks raise questions about the effectiveness of cur-rent framings for state authority and democratic participation. In a context ofmultiple partial and specific changes linked to globalization, these forms ofdigitization have enabled the ascendance of subnational scales, such as theglobal city, and supranational scales, such as global markets, where previouslythe national scale was dominant. These rescalings do not always parallel ex-isting formalizations of state authority. The overall outcome might be described as a destabilizing of olderformal hierarchies of scale and an emergence of not fully formalized newones. Older hierarchies of scale dating from the period that saw the ascen-dance of the nation-state continue to operate; they are typically organized interms of institutional size and territorial scope: from the international downto the national, the regional, the urban, and the local. But today’s rescalingdynamics cut across institutional size and across the institutional encase-ments of territory produced by the formation of national states. At its mostgeneral these developments raise a number of questions about their impacton the regulatory capacities of states and about their potential for undermin-ing state authority as it has come to be constituted over the last two cen-turies. More analytically we might ask whether these developments signalnew types of imbrications between authority and territory, and more specifi-cally, place. This chapter examines these questions by focusing on how digitiza-tion has enabled the strengthening of older actors and spaces and the forma-tion of novel ones capable of engaging the competence, scope, and exclusiv-ity of state authority. The particular empirical cases examined to get at theselarger questions are global finance and the new types of cross-border activistpolitics, in both of which digitization has been transformative. To some extent12Sassen_ch07 328-377.qxd 3/6/08 11:47 AM Page 328

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter i
  2. Contents vii
  3. Tables xi
  4. Acknowledgments xiii
  5. 1. Introduction 1
  6. Part I. Assembling The National
  7. Introduction 25
  8. 2. Territory, Authority, and Rights in the Framing of the National 31
  9. 3. Assembling National Political Economies Centered on Imperial Geographies 74
  10. Part II. Disassembling the National
  11. Introduction 141
  12. 4. The Tipping Point: Toward New Organizing Logics 148
  13. 5. Denationalized State Agendas and Privatized Norm-Making 222
  14. 6. Foundational Subjects For Political Membership: Today’s Changed Relation to the National State 277
  15. Part III. Assemblages of a Global Digital Age
  16. Introduction 323
  17. 7. Digital Networks, State Authority, and Politics 328
  18. 8. Assembling Mixed Spatial and Temporal Orders: Elements for a Theorization 378
  19. In Conclusion
  20. 9. Conclusion 401
  21. Bibliography 425
  22. Index 473
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https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400828593.328

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter i
  2. Contents vii
  3. Tables xi
  4. Acknowledgments xiii
  5. 1. Introduction 1
  6. Part I. Assembling The National
  7. Introduction 25
  8. 2. Territory, Authority, and Rights in the Framing of the National 31
  9. 3. Assembling National Political Economies Centered on Imperial Geographies 74
  10. Part II. Disassembling the National
  11. Introduction 141
  12. 4. The Tipping Point: Toward New Organizing Logics 148
  13. 5. Denationalized State Agendas and Privatized Norm-Making 222
  14. 6. Foundational Subjects For Political Membership: Today’s Changed Relation to the National State 277
  15. Part III. Assemblages of a Global Digital Age
  16. Introduction 323
  17. 7. Digital Networks, State Authority, and Politics 328
  18. 8. Assembling Mixed Spatial and Temporal Orders: Elements for a Theorization 378
  19. In Conclusion
  20. 9. Conclusion 401
  21. Bibliography 425
  22. Index 473
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