Paper Short Abstract:

Motivated by the desire to secure "Digital Sovereignty", Germany and the European Union plan not only to expand 5G mobile networks, but also to develop future 6G networks My contribution explores the imaginaries of 6G networks, of what they do, who they serve and what (geo-)politics they enable.

Paper Abstract:

The EU's "Digital Decade" entails not only the expansion of fifth-generation mobile networks ("5G"), but also the development of sixth generation ("6G") networks. EU and German-Funded 6G Networks are expected to further increase bandwidth, lower latency, and make Networks "smarter". Crucially, they are also expected to secure "technological Sovereignty" (EC 2023) in the face of geo-economic conflicts, throwing the (geo-)politics of infrastructure into sharp relief (Glasze et al 2022, Musiani 2022).

Attending to the development and deployment of mobile communication networks reveals a complex arrangement of state and supra-state actors, scientific institutions, network operators, hardware manufacturers and standardization bodies. Which visions of what these networks do, whom they serve and what politics they enable prevail in this context? Based on an interests in the regimes of difference that underly discourses and practices of sovereignty (Bonilla 2017, cf. Balibar 2004), my contribution to this panel will draw on fieldwork at Research and Development meetings, interviews with expert and practitoiners as well as document analyses to explore these questions. Investigating these "Infrastructural imaginaries" (Mattern 2017) of next-generation mobile networks might illuminate if and how statecraft is reconfigured when sovereignty becomes a question of digital infrastructure development.