Digital Enclosures and Commons Solutions: A Political-Ecological Approach to Data Governance

Abstract

Over the past two decades, critical scholars have observed a gradual enclosure of the digital sphere by state and market forces, employing terms such as digital capitalism (Schiller, 1999), information capitalism (Schiller, 2007), platform capitalism (Srnicek & De Sutter, 2017), platformisation (Poell et al., 2019), and surveillance capitalism (Zuboff, 2019). Given that these phenomena exhibit dynamics similar to those in the tangible commons - such as free riding, congestion, and pollution - some have turned to commons theory as a strategic countermeasure. However, the non-rivalrous and exclusionary nature of digital data classifies it as a club good, challenging the applicability of a commons analytic framework for data governance. This presentation explores recent scholarship that extends Elinor Ostrom's work to propose a political-ecological approach for conceptualizing and governing digital data as a commons. It further examines the practical applications of this approach by introducing Superset, an initiative that creatively combines web3 technologies with existing regulatory and governance frameworks to manage a digital commons. This contribution highlights the adaptability of Ostrom's framework in addressing the unique challenges of digital data while also acknowledging the obstacles encountered along the way.