Alina Utrata

My doctoral thesis “Silicon Valley and the State: Towards a Political Theory of Technology Corporations” explores how corporate and state power have interacted in areas which have historically been considered state functions. Taking an expansive view of corporations in global history, I examine how companies have come to control technological regimes—from cloud computing to digital payment systems—and what type of power this confers. I argue that exploring how states and corporations negotiate control of digital infrastructure can illuminate the proper place of territoriality in constituting state sovereignty as well as the “jurisdictional evasiveness” at the core of corporations’ power. 

In addition to my doctoral research, I have published in the American Political Science Review comparing Silicon Valley’s outer space colonization projects with the histories of colonizing corporations such as the British or Dutch East India Companies. I explore how outer space colonization and the idea of “engineering territory” has inspired wider Silicon Valley political exit projects such as cyberspace, sea-steading and network states which, rather than creating spaces of anarchical freedom, are attempting to recreate the territorial state in new spaces.