Pandemic Citizenship Amidst Stateless Algorithmic Nations: Digital Rights and Technological Sovereignty at Stake – Post-Covid Europe #4

The public health crisis generated by the Covid19 pandemic and its consequences, along with the crisis management measures put in place by the European States and Union, deserve an analysis. The brutal socioeconomic and health impacts of this unforeseen crisis should make us reflect, among other things, on crisis management and social protection models, our public policies, political systems and the relationship between technology and human rights. For this reason, the Coppieters Foundation is releasing a series of papers by experts to reflect on various topics related to post-Covid19 Europe. Paper #1, focussing on governance, is available here. Paper #2, focussing on the Green Deal and Next Generation EU, is available here. Paper #3, focussing on cross-border solidarity and the national reflex, is available here.

In this paper, Igor Calzada, Research Fellow at Cardiff University’s Wales Institute for Social and Economic Research and Data and Research Affiliate at the University of Oxford’s Urban Transformation Economic and Social Research Council and Oxford Programme for the Future of Cities, introduces the notion of “pandemic citizenship” in order to shed light on the extreme circumstances in which citizens have been surviving during the health crisis. Over the course of the pandemic, a debate has emerged about the appropriate techno-political response when governments use disease surveillance technologies to tackle the spread of COVID-19. The article provides an overview of the European situation in this regard, with a specific focus on stateless nations. It argues for the need to conduct further research and gather policy evidence to articulate counter political strategies as “algorithmic nations”. Amidst the increasingly artificial intelligence-driven governance systems in several nation-States in Europe, Calzada underlines the need to devolve data power to citizens, through data ecosystems, in European stateless algorithmic nations.

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This paper is financially supported by the European Parliament. The European Parliament is not liable for the content of the paper nor the opinions expressed by its author.

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