Skip to content Skip to navigation
University of Warwick
  • Study
  • |
  • Research
  • |
  • Business
  • |
  • Alumni
  • |
  • News
  • |
  • About

University of Warwick
Publications service & WRAP

Highlight your research

  • WRAP
    • Home
    • Search WRAP
    • Browse by Warwick Author
    • Browse WRAP by Year
    • Browse WRAP by Subject
    • Browse WRAP by Department
    • Browse WRAP by Funder
    • Browse Theses by Department
  • Publications Service
    • Home
    • Search Publications Service
    • Browse by Warwick Author
    • Browse Publications service by Year
    • Browse Publications service by Subject
    • Browse Publications service by Department
    • Browse Publications service by Funder
  • Help & Advice
University of Warwick

The Library

  • Login
  • Admin

Ruling through technology : politicizing blockchain services

Tools
- Tools
+ Tools

Beaumier, Guillaume and Kalomeni, Kevin (2022) Ruling through technology : politicizing blockchain services. Review of International Political Economy, 29 (6). pp. 2135-2158. doi:10.1080/09692290.2021.1959377 ISSN 0969-2290.

[img]
Preview
PDF
WRAP-ruling-through-technology-politicizing-blockchain-services-Beaumier-2021 .pdf - Accepted Version - Requires a PDF viewer.

Download (1137Kb) | Preview
Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1080/09692290.2021.1959377

Request Changes to record.

Abstract

Next to artificial intelligence and big data, blockchains have emerged as one of the most oft-cited technologies associated with the digital economy. Leading technology companies have recently contributed to making the technology used more widely by developing integrated blockchain offerings. The emergence of such services yet strikingly clashes with the original stated goal of the technology to remove any form of central political authority, such as the one companies behind these new services can represent. How should we then understand the embrace of blockchains by companies that this technology was notably supposed to displace? Using the concept of infrastructure from Science and Technology Studies, we argue that these companies are not merely adopting the technology but actively promoting a new assemblage of socio-technical devices to reassert their authority over how information is exchanged online. Based on a comparative analysis of the technical documentation of Ethereum and Amazon Web Services (AWS) blockchain services, we highlight how actors contributing to building digital infrastructures regulate their users' behavior by affording them different capacities and constraints. We moreover show how by pursuing its commercial interest, AWS supported a corporate form of governance historically promoted by the United States to oversee the digital economy.

Item Type: Journal Article
Subjects: H Social Sciences > HF Commerce
Divisions: Faculty of Social Sciences > Politics and International Studies
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): Blockchains (Databases)
Journal or Publication Title: Review of International Political Economy
Publisher: Routledge
ISSN: 0969-2290
Official Date: 2022
Dates:
DateEvent
2022Published
29 July 2021Available
18 July 2021Accepted
Volume: 29
Number: 6
Page Range: pp. 2135-2158
DOI: 10.1080/09692290.2021.1959377
Status: Peer Reviewed
Publication Status: Published
Reuse Statement (publisher, data, author rights): This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Review of International Political Economy on 29 Jul 2021, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/09692290.2021.1959377
Access rights to Published version: Restricted or Subscription Access
Date of first compliant deposit: 3 August 2021
Date of first compliant Open Access: 29 January 2023
RIOXX Funder/Project Grant:
Project/Grant IDRIOXX Funder NameFunder ID
Marie Sklodowska-Curie Grant Agreement No 722826Horizon 2020 Framework Programmehttp://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100010661
611-2018-0210Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canadahttp://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000155

Request changes or add full text files to a record

Repository staff actions (login required)

View Item View Item

Downloads

Downloads per month over past year

View more statistics

twitter

Email us: wrap@warwick.ac.uk
Contact Details
About Us