Assembling Publics: Microsoft, Cybersecurity and Public‐Private Relations
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Assembling Publics : Microsoft, Cybersecurity and Public‐Private Relations. / Liebetrau, Tobias; Monsees, Linda .
I: Politics and Governance, Bind 11, Nr. 3, 2023, s. 157-167.Publikation: Bidrag til tidsskrift › Tidsskriftartikel › Forskning › fagfællebedømt
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Assembling Publics
T2 - Microsoft, Cybersecurity and Public‐Private Relations
AU - Liebetrau, Tobias
AU - Monsees, Linda
PY - 2023
Y1 - 2023
N2 - In this article, we advance the literature on publics in international politics by exploring the nexus between publicness and big tech companies. This nexus finds a significant expression in the increasing impact of big tech companies to mediate disputes over societal problems, deliver social goods and rearticulate public-private relationships. We develop an analytical framework by combining recent scholarship on assemblage theory and publics, allowing us to understand publicness as enacted in practices which revolve around issues and rearticulate relations of authority and legitimacy. To demonstrate the value of the framework, we show how Microsoft is involved in assembling publicness around cybersecurity. Microsoft does so by problematising and countering state-led cybersecurity activities, questioning the state as a protector of its citizens and proposing governance measures to establish the tech sector as authoritative, and legitimate “first responders.” With this rearticulating of public-private relations, we see the emergence of a political subject for whom security is not solely the right of a citizen secured by the state but also a customer service provided as per a service agreement. The study hence offers important insights into the connection between publicness and cybersecurity, state and big tech relations, and the formation of authority and legitimacy in international politics.
AB - In this article, we advance the literature on publics in international politics by exploring the nexus between publicness and big tech companies. This nexus finds a significant expression in the increasing impact of big tech companies to mediate disputes over societal problems, deliver social goods and rearticulate public-private relationships. We develop an analytical framework by combining recent scholarship on assemblage theory and publics, allowing us to understand publicness as enacted in practices which revolve around issues and rearticulate relations of authority and legitimacy. To demonstrate the value of the framework, we show how Microsoft is involved in assembling publicness around cybersecurity. Microsoft does so by problematising and countering state-led cybersecurity activities, questioning the state as a protector of its citizens and proposing governance measures to establish the tech sector as authoritative, and legitimate “first responders.” With this rearticulating of public-private relations, we see the emergence of a political subject for whom security is not solely the right of a citizen secured by the state but also a customer service provided as per a service agreement. The study hence offers important insights into the connection between publicness and cybersecurity, state and big tech relations, and the formation of authority and legitimacy in international politics.
KW - Faculty of Social Sciences
KW - assemblage
KW - big Tech
KW - citizen-user
KW - cybersecurity
KW - global governance
KW - international politics
KW - Micrsosoft
KW - public
U2 - 10.17645/pag.v11i3.6771
DO - 10.17645/pag.v11i3.6771
M3 - Journal article
VL - 11
SP - 157
EP - 167
JO - Politics and Governance
JF - Politics and Governance
SN - 2183-2463
IS - 3
ER -
ID: 358114655