THE EU’S DIGITAL EQUATION: RE-REGULATING THE EU’S KNOWLEDGE, POWER, AND SOVEREIGN RELATIONS IN LIGHT OF ITS UNDERSTANDING OF GOVERNMENTALITY

Authors : Fitnat Cansu ÜNAL ÖNGÖREN

Pages : 65-91

Doi:10.29228/mjes.442

View : 40 | Download : 42

Publication Date : 2023-06-25

Article Type : Research Paper

Abstract :The European Union complements its political and economic integration with digital and technological policies in order to align itself with digitalization and technological progress. As the EU digitalizes and harmonizes itself with technology, it aims to incorporate its citizens, member states, and global technology companies within this process of harmonization. With this new approach, the EU establishes the practices of neoliberal digital governmentality, which engage with the equation of sovereignty, power, and knowledge in a data-centric order. This is because, in today’s world, data determines knowledge, shapes the subject, transforms the international system. In such a situation, the EU lays out its own particular models of power and attempts to control and discipline the international system. Hence, this article aims to explicate – through the EU’s digital policies – that the EU has developed new dispositifs that will allow it to maintain its governmentality in the digital sphere. Embracing Foucault’s post-structuralist approach, this article consists of four main sections as well as the introduction and conclusion. The first section includes Foucault’s terminology. The second section analyses Foucault’s understanding of neoliberal governmentality. The third section engages in the relationship between digitalization, data, and the individual. The fourth section examines the EU’s practices of governmentality with respect to digitalization.
Keywords : Veri, dijitalleşme, bilgi, iktidar, Foucault, AB