The special issue, published in Policy & Internet in early 2025 and co-edited by Julia Pohle, Mauro Santaniello and Riccardo Nanni, features six articles that seek to “unthink” digital sovereignty by deconstructing and (re)conceiving it from different viewpoints. While some of the issue’s contributions provide much-needed conceptual and theoretical foundations for analyzing, contextualizing, and interpreting the discourses and practices of digital sovereignty, others reexamine various concepts linked to digital sovereignty by critically assessing how policy actors have envisioned and narratively shaped it through selected case studies. Finally, this special issue also foregrounds postcolonial perspectives, exploring digital sovereignty through the lenses of emerging powers, Indigenous communities, and developing countries. All contributions, whether presenting new empirical research or commentary, apply a critical perspective to the concept of digital sovereignty, thereby offering readers new avenues for reflection.

The special issue does not aim to provide a comprehensive review of the disciplinary and theoretical viewpoints through which digital sovereignty can be revisited, deconstructed, or “unthought.” However, with its ambition to provide perspectives going beyond the mainstream focus on global digital power, the contributions mark a useful starting point for reflection on the ways in which digital sovereignty, in its many facets, can be deconstructed and (re)addressed. The ambition of the guest editors of this special issue was to launch a conversation among scholars interested in a critical perspective on ongoing and future policy debates on digital technologies and their societal implications.