From Digital Feudalism to Digital Sovereignty

As governments worldwide grapple with growing digital dependencies, questions about sovereignty, resilience, and power in the digital age have become more urgent than ever. UCL’s Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP) has been at the forefront of shaping policy toolsets that rethink digital sovereignty beyond techno-nationalism, putting the common and planetary good ahead of rentiership and financialization.

This panel will introduce and debate new policy frameworks to expand digital sovereignty, including the EuroStack – A European Alternative for Digital Sovereignty report and the Reclaiming Digital Sovereignty whitepaper developed at IIPP.

From the growing influence of Big Tech on AI and digital infrastructure to the risks of rentierism in technological development, the debate will explore the trade-offs, challenges, and urgent questions shaping digital governance today.

How should states, regions, and global institutions respond to the increasing concentration of digital power? What are the key policy and investment priorities needed — and how can their ecological footprint be minimized? What AI should be developed, and for whom? How can the digital economy be governed democratically, and what space is left for states and civil society organizations to steer technological development? How do initiatives like the EuroStack — which proposes a concrete strategy for building an independent European digital infrastructure aligned with democratic values — fit into wider efforts, including IIPP’s research on algorithmic rents, intellectual monopolies in tech, and digital public infrastructures?

Meet the panel

Mike Bracken, Visiting Professor of Practice at the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP), as well as a Partner at Public Digital.
Francesca Bria, Honorary Professor at the Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose at UCL in London and a member of the High-Level Roundtable for the New European Bauhaus
David Eaves, Associate Professor of Digital Government and Co-Deputy Director of the Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose at UCL
Rainer Kattel, Deputy Director and Professor of Innovation and Public Governance at the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP)
Mariana Mazzucato, Professor in the Economics of Innovation and Public Value, University College London and Founding Director of the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose
Cecilia Rikap, Associate Professor in Economics and Head of Research at the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP)