From Digital Feudalism to Digital Sovereignty
Join UCL IIPP for the IIPP Forum 2025, this panel discussion will be taking place on Friday 20th June at 12:00 - 13:30 BST.
From Digital Feudalism to Digital Sovereignty
20 Jun 2025, 12:00 – 13:30
About the session
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)
Key information
- When: Friday 20th June at 12:00 - 13:30 BST.
- Where: Beverage Room, Senate House, University of London, Malet St, London, WC1E 7HU
IIPP's Forum 2025 - Rethinking the State
The Rethinking the State Forum is UCL IIPP’s flagship annual event, convening global thinkers, policymakers, students, and practitioners to examine how states can build the capacity to drive inclusive, green, and digital transformations. Taking place from 18–20 June 2025, the Forum offers a space for critical reflection and exchange on the evolving role of the state in tackling today’s complex challenges. Through public panels, interactive workshops, and cross-sector dialogues, the event explores themes such as decolonising public administration, rebuilding public institutions, and reconfiguring governance for the common good.
Since 2011, Mike was at the Cabinet Office as Executive Director of Digital and more recently was also appointed as the Government’s first Chief Data Officer. Prior to joining the Government, Mike worked at Guardian News & Media as Digital Development Director for nearly four years; co-founded e-democracy site My Society and was a Director/Shareholder at technical services company Wavex. Mike was awarded a CBE in the 2014 New Year’s Honours list.
An innovation economist and digital policy expert working at the intersection of technology, geopolitics, economics, and society. I am an 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, established by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. I am currently a Senior Fellow at Stiftung Mercator in Berlin, where I lead the EuroStack Initiative on Europe’s Digital Sovereignty.
Associate Professor in Digital Government/Deputy Director
UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP)
David Eaves is Associate Professor of Digital Government and Co-Deputy Director of the Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose at UCL. David’s courses focus on the governance of digital public infrastructure and the minimum viable knowledge public administrators need on technology to be effective in a digital era. He is a co-founder of Teaching Public Service in a Digital Age, which seeks to increase the number of public servants receiving digital era public administration skills.
Deputy Director and Professor of Innovation and Public Governance
UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP)
Professor Kattel has also served on various public policy commissions, including the Estonian Research Council and European Science Foundation. He has worked as an expert for the OECD, UNDP and the European Commission. Currently, he leads the Estonian Government’s Gender Equality Council, and is a member of E-Estonia Council advising the Prime Minister of Estonia.
Founding Director and Professor in the Economics of Innovation and Public Value
UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP)
Mariana Mazzucato is Professor in the Economics of Innovation and Public Value at University College London, where she is Founding Director of the UCL Institute for Innovation & Public Purpose (IIPP). Her previous posts include the RM Phillips Professorial Chair at the Science Policy Research Unit at Sussex University. She is a member of the UK Academy of Social Sciences (FAcSS) and the Italian Academy of Sciences Lincei.
Associate Professor/Lecturer in Economics or Political Economics
UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (UCL IIPP)
Cecilia Rikap (PhD in economics from the Universidad de Buenos Aires) is an Associate Professor in Economics and Head of Research at IIPP- UCL. Until joining UCL, she was a permanent Senior Lecturer in International Political Economy (IPE) at City, University of London and programme director of the BSc in IPE at the same university. She is a tenure researcher of the CONICET, Argentina’s national research council, and associate researcher at COSTECH lab, Université de Technologie de Compiègne.
Further information
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