Regulatory Means for Interventionist Ends

Abstract: Despite its new-found penchant for market interventionism, the European Union (EU) is often portrayed as lacking the fiscal and administrative capacity to conduct industrial policy. The EU can…

The costs of conditionality. IPCEIs and the constrained politics of EU industrial policy

Abstract: With the global return of industrial policy, most literature examines why states increasingly resort to market activism. Much less is known about how industrial policy works “on the ground.” In this…

Waking a Dormant Legal Resource

Abstract: Important Projects of Common European Interest (IPCEIs) have become a central tool of the European Union's (EU) new industrial policy. IPCEIs derive their peculiar name from an exemption to the…

Picking Sectors

Abstract: A central feature of industrial policy today is governments’ growing willingness to direct economic activity into strategic sectors. However, identifying which sectors or technologies are strategic is…

Doing Industrial Policy in a Geo‐Tech World

Abstract: In recent years, industrial policy has made a comeback across the globe, with governments increasingly willing to redirect economic activity towards strategically important technologies. While a…

Digital sovereignty - Rhetoric and reality

Abstract: In recent years, the language of digital sovereignty has become ubiquitous in Europe. However, we still lack systematic knowledge if and to what extent the discourse on digital sovereignty is…

Moving on to not fall behind? Technological sovereignty and the ‘geo-dirigiste’ turn in EU industrial policy

Abstract: The fear of falling behind has been a driving force of European integration. Historically, Europe’s response to the looming angst of declining competitiveness has been more market-creation, not…

The Solutionist Ethic and the Spirit of Digital Capitalism

Abstract: Digital technologies are rapidly transforming economies and societies. Scholars have approached this rise of digital capitalism from various angles. However, relatively little attention has been paid…

Charting the Contours of the Geo-Tech World

Investing in the knowledge economy

Abstract: Investments in education and retraining, or research and development have become essential in today's knowledge-intensive economies. While private actors often underprovided such knowledge-based…

The (False) promise of solutionism

Abstract: Digital technologies are transforming security governance, bringing new risks and opportunities. The resulting uncertainty creates interpretative contests about what these new challenges are and who…

As Open as Possible, as Autonomous as Necessary

Abstract: For decades, the EU's trade policy has been centred around open(ing) markets. Why, then, has the EU recently embraced open strategic autonomy as the conceptual cornerstone of its renewed trade policy?…

The politics of platform capitalism

Abstract: Platform companies like Uber not only disrupt existing markets but also contest existing regulatory regimes. This raises the question of how, when, and why such companies are regulated. This article…

The discursive construction of digitalization

Abstract: New forms of work intermediation - the gig economy - and the growing use of advanced digital technologies - the new knowledge economy - are changing the nature of work. The digitalization of work,…

Regulating the European Data-Driven Economy

Abstract: In recent years, data have become part and parcel of contemporary capitalism. This has created tensions between the growing demand for personal data and the fundamental right to data protection.…