Geopolitics of digital: The stakes for Italy and Europe

Presentation of the research project "La geopolitica del digitale" [=Geopolitics of digital].

The Covid-19 pandemic has first of all established the importance of digital technology as a resilience factor in society. This factor increases the weight of technology in society as a whole.

This raises a number of questions concerning national strategies for the management of individual data, also conceived as contributions to the 'nourishment' (of data) of forms of artificial intelligence (AI). Europe has recently drawn up its own digital strategy in which it envisages not only huge investments in infrastructure (e.g. in the cloud) but also the creation of European data clusters to nurture the development of artificial intelligence in Europe. In addition, the European Union, with the "digital act", has opened up prospects for both antitrust and the extension of rights protection in the digital context. It should also be noted that the issue of "digital sovereignty", linked to that of "technological sovereignty", emerged strongly during the Covid period and also influences the European agenda. The research "Geopolitics of digital" has produced in the Italian context a series of reflections that can reinforce the available analysis tools by giving the opportunity to a community of young researchers (under 40) to deepen topics and give visibility to their work.

The conference is being organised in cooperation with Centro Studi sul Federalismo.