Du cyberespace à la datasphère. Le nouveau front pionnier de la géographie

• Main Authors: Frédérick Douzet, Alix Desforges
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Netcom Association 2018-12-01
• Series: Netcom
• Subjects: datasphere; cyberspace; digital revolution; geopolitics; diplomacy
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/netcom/3419

In this article, we want to offer a preliminary approach to the concept of datasphere as both a novel space to comprehend and a new subfield of geography to study. Even though the notion of datasphere is just emerging, it brings together strategic issues related to the cyberspace, the management of data and the geography of data flows, an understanding of the informational space, the cartography of topological networks, and the fusion of geolocated and non-spatialized data. For that reason, the datasphere needs to be understood as a social construction reproducing power struggles and political, social, technical and organizational choices with strategic implications. Hence, the geopolitical methodology is essential to comprehend this new environment. Indeed, and even though it does not align with a territory in the classical sense of the term, the datasphere is the product, the focus, and the vector of power relationships set at the heart of contemporary geopolitical conflicts and international diplomacy.