Call for Contributions : Navigating Digital Power in Asia
Digital power is shaping our societies in profound ways. While state actors and corporations increasingly consolidate control over digital spaces, communities also have the capacity to reclaim and reshape these systems, creating more just and rights-respecting digital futures.
Big- and small-tech are building and expanding their platforms to further monetise, exploit and manipulate us. Governments in Asia continue to enact online regulations with little transparency or public debate, often undermining privacy, freedom of expression, and access to information. Digital government services and platforms are being deployed without adequate safeguards, while the securitisation of disinformation and encryption expands the power of states, military forces, and intelligence agencies to control content, suppress dissent, and monitor citizens. And the convergence of corporate and state interests strengthens digital authoritarianism, limiting the emergence of independent tech alternatives and democratic digital spaces.
But digital power is not only a tool for control—it can also be a force for transformation. People are pushing back, designing alternative infrastructures, and reclaiming autonomy over the technologies that shape their lives. Through decentralisation, open-source innovation, cooperative networks, and grassroots digital movements, a growing resistance is challenging state-corporate digital domination and building systems that foster freedom, dignity, and mutual care.
We are seeking contributions (1,000 to 3,000 words, illustrations and images) that remind us of the harms and violence of unchecked digital power, explore emerging threats, and examine how we can reclaim and repurpose technology to counteract and dismantle centralised power.
We encourage fresh perspectives, creative strategies, and bold visions for resistance, adaptation, and renewal.
Note that a fee of $100 to $150 (USD) is available for selected work.
Chapters
Currently, we are envisaging five main chapters.
1. The Machinery of Control
– How digital power is weaponised for surveillance, suppression, and manipulation.
2. Empire Reloaded: The Corporate-State Nexus
– Digital colonisation, platform monopolies, and the strategic alliance between corporations and governments.
3. Tightening the Grip: Emerging Threats in Digital Power
– New and evolving harms that reinforce control, exploitation, and suppression.
4. Cracks in the System: Resisting and Reimagining Digital Power
– How decentralised tech, grassroots movements, and creative disruptions are reclaiming digital power.
5. Futureproof: Building Just and Open Digital Worlds
– Imagining and creating alternative digital futures rooted in equity, autonomy, and community governance.
Geographic Focus
The contributions should relate to a country or countries in the Asia-Pacific region. We are also interested in lessons that the region can learn from other parts of the world. If you are not sure if your contribution is a fit, just pitch it and we’ll get back to you.
Target Audience
This collection of work is aimed at a broad audience. They include activists and civil society members, educators and researchers, policy makers and funders, and others concerned with the shrinking digital space for civic and democratic participation, and curious to know more about the digital power landscape in Asia.
Contribution Ideas
We are very open to your ideas, and to ignite your thinking, here are some topic explorations we are interested in:
- The power of digital platforms and technologies—who controls them, how they shape behaviour, and how they could be reimagined.
- Surveillance, suppression, and control—case studies and insights into how digital technologies are used to attack defenders and citizens, and monitor, manipulate, and restrict freedoms.
- The convergence of corporate, state, and military interests in tech—how alliances between these actors reinforce digital authoritarianism.
- Digital colonisation—how the expansion of global tech empires extracts value, imposes dependencies, and reshapes digital and physical landscapes.
- Emerging digital harms—new ways digital power is being deployed to consolidate control, suppress dissent, or exploit users.
- Reclaiming digital power—how decentralised technologies, cooperative models, and creative resistance are shifting control.
- Independent and alternative technologies as pathways to digital autonomy.
- Emergent movements—grassroots and activist-led efforts challenging digital authoritarianism and corporate dominance.
- Building sustainable, just, and open digital worlds—fostering digital spaces that centre human dignity, rights, and community governance.
Pitch Your Idea
If you are interested in making a contribution, please complete the pitch form by clicking on the button below, or directly here. We’ll be in touch with you soon. Thank you!
The call will be closing Monday 14th April (11:59pm SG Time).
If you have any questions, please email us via: team at commonedge dot asia
