EDITORIAL: POWER(S) AND SOVEREIGNTY IN (AND/OR VIA) DIGITAL INFORMATION

Abstract

The last decade of the new millennium has provided us with the confirmation that the Internet is no longer a simple mass medium but a connective tissue that permeates all aspects of our lives. This epochal passage of entry into the era of hyperhistory (Floridi, 2014) is characterized by the definitive osmosis between real and virtual: the human person, understood as a complex informational entity, carries out most of its activities within a space governed by a constant flow of data. In this context, social sciences find themselves at a crossroads: to stick with tradition, describing the disruptive effect of technologies and information in negative and positive terms (Ellul, 1954), or to move beyond the dichotomy between apocalyptic and integrate, in the attempt to understand the essence of these phenomena without limiting themselves to a mere reclassification exercise or the adaptation of an analogical interpretation.

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