Politics of Connections: Discover the proceedings of the CNIL-EHESS autumn school

We are delighted to announce the publication of the proceedings of the international autumn school on the social, legal, and political implications of data circulation, organized by the CNIL and the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) exactly one year ago, in October 2024.

This publication is the result of a week of intensive exchanges, bringing together the reflections of doctoral students/early-career researchers and those of established researchers from various disciplines.

Exploring the political dimensions of data flows

The discussions revolved around three fundamental tensions for analyzing the complex nature of data flows:

• Interoperability / Non-interoperability: This axis focused on the propensity of the operation and interoperability between technical systems to have political and social effects, determining access to services, creating inequalities, and questioning our rights.

• Visibility / Invisibility: This axis allowed for questioning the myth of 'immaterial' digital technology by making its physical infrastructures (cables, data centers), its implicit norms, and its effects on the organization of the social world visible.

• Global / Local: Through this axis, we focused on the impact of global infrastructures and actors (large corporations, states) on territories and individuals' lives at the local level, particularly through the notion of 'digital sovereignty'.

What do the proceedings contain?

These proceedings reflect the richness and dynamism of the autumn school's conversations. In them, you will find:

• Summaries of presentations by leading researchers on topics such as the history of online data, infrastructural approaches to data regulation, the geopolitics of Internet routes, and the challenges of data distribution.

• In-depth research presentations from a new generation of researchers, through numerous case studies.

This collection offers new theoretical and methodological resources for anyone interested in the political, social, and material foundations of our connected world.