Project description
The battle to shape the global tech order
Global rivalries can be fought with armies, trade policies, and the rules that govern digital technology. For instance, AI and quantum computing are shaping the future balance of power. Surprisingly, little is known about how governments and corporations perceive these technologies and the world they might create. In this context, the ERC-funded TECHORDER project aims to change that. It explores how leaders at companies such as IBM, Microsoft, and Tencent, as well as officials from China, Europe, India, and the US, perceive the stakes. By combining interviews, mapping, ethnography, and data analysis, TECHORDER seeks to reveal the hidden visions driving today’s battles over the global tech order.
Objective
The regulation of digital technology is central to the growing geopolitical struggles in global politics, yet we know little about how the major players themselves perceive the key points of contention. The point of departure for TECHORDER is that global tech governance is guided not just by technical expertise, profit motives, or national security concerns, but also by ideas about the transformative potential of digital technologies, which are seen as capable of bringing about both apocalyptic and utopian outcomes. The project breaks new ground by developing a new theory and multi-method investigation into the emerging ‘global tech order’: the order constructed by the imaginaries, global authority configurations, and rule-making efforts that govern and legitimize digital technology and relationships between states and major technology companies. TECHORDER focuses on two of the most geopolitically contentious technologies: artificial intelligence and quantum technology. The project examines the visions of corporate leaders and employees at major technology companies like Microsoft, IBM, Tencent, Mistral and Tata, as well as leaders and officials from key states including the US, China, India, the UK, France, and Germany. TECHORDER investigates how these actors perceive the technologies, their own geopolitical roles, the global power configuration of participants involved in the negotiation of global tech rules. The project introduces a new multi-method approach integrating ethnographic observations, participatory mapping, surveys, interviews, computer vision and network analysis. TECHORDER significantly advances our theoretical understanding of international order, big technology companies, and 21st-century geopolitics beyond existing scholarship in International Relations. The project will generate crucial new insights into the hidden cultures, geopolitical rivalries, and norm-making efforts that shape the very idea of international order in the digital age.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2024-ADG
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
1165 KOBENHAVN
Denmark
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.