Control, shift, govern

Control, shift, govern responds to growing calls to rethink the role of the state in an era of digital transformation, shedding light on the future of governance and the increasingly mediated relationships between governments and society. Control, shift, govern examines how digitalisation is reshaping the landscapes of governance and state power. As governments worldwide adopt digital and automated technologies, this volume explores the profound shifts, tensions and structural changes transforming the way states govern territories and populations.Focusing on the geographies and temporalities of statecraft in a hyper-digitised world, the book brings together theoretical insights and empirical research to unpack the role of platforms, digital mapping, big data and algorithmic systems in contemporary governance. It critically investigates how these technologies are deployed to exert control, manage populations and reconfigure state authority.Moving beyond traditional understandings of the state, the book also explores the growing influence of para-state and non-state actors—private corporations, multilateral institutions and civil society organisations—that increasingly collaborate with or challenge state agencies in providing services, managing infrastructure and ensuring national security. Control, shift, govern offers a critical examination of how digital technologies are reshaping the practices and processes of state-making. As digital tools proliferate across governance landscapes, this volume explores the complex and at times contradictory ways in which political authority is produced, reconfigured and contested in the information age. Bringing together timely theoretical insights and empirical case studies, the volume illuminates the evolving entanglements between digital infrastructures and the exercise of state power.