An Emergent Community of Cyber Sovereignty: The Reproduction of Boundaries?

Abstract

This research probes the boundary-work of Communities of Practice (CoP) by examining China’s active efforts in advancing a state-centric approach in managing cyberspace in the international arena. Boundaries separating the Global North and South are reproduced in the expansion of what I call the “community of cyber sovereignty.” This phenomenon points to the CoP literature’s omission of the proactive aspects of boundary-work undertaken by core members and its surrounding and confounding historical contexts. I argue that boundary reproduction arises from both deliberate and unreflective moves in cultivating CoP. First, emerging from reflexivity in interacting with the external environment, practitioners in CoPs that are vigorously contested will likely replicate historically successful boundary drawing to acquire or maintain credibility. Second, CoP members engage in the habitual selection of strategies, anchoring the community toward sustaining relationships with actors that its members traditionally associate with. These proactive boundary-work dynamics are enabled by inclusive and exclusive mechanisms such as “brokering” varied practices to include potential members and “gatekeeping” others. My analysis suggests that scholarship must attend to actors’ proactive efforts to establish communities preferentially as well as their linkages with prevailing social structures.