Making apps, owning data: Digital sovereignty and public authorities’ arrangements to “byte” back
基于瑞典两家公共交通机构自研应用的三年定性研究，揭示数字主权不仅涉及控制软件和数据，更关乎组织重构，对关注公共部门数字自主的学者有启发。
This study tells the story of two public transport authorities (PTA) in Sweden who developed their own apps. Although this might seem trivial and far-detached from the critical issues discussed in organization studies, this story raises questions of great relevance for this field, namely how digital sovereignty is organized. Digital sovereignty refers to governments trying to take or regain power and control over “the digital,” which a small group of large tech companies have monopolized. Drawing on a 3 year qualitative study of app making, and using assemblage theory, this study shows that digital sovereignty is not only about controlling software development or data ownership, but also about re-configuring the organization in relation to digital artifacts such as apps. By bypassing procurement procedures and paralleling their IT-departments, the PTAs here display how digital sovereignty comes from “below,” originating from frustrated civil servants within the public authorities who literally tried to “byte back” in a digital world run by large tech companies.