Call for Papers

AI and Sovereignty: Philosophy, Politics, Law, Economics and Sociolinguistics

Artificial intelligence is transforming the conditions under which power, authority, knowledge, communication, economic resources, and political decision-making are exercised, distributed, and legitimized. The development and deployment of AI systems raise not only technological questions, but also fundamental philosophical, political, legal, economic, and sociolinguistic questions concerning sovereignty, autonomy, authority, responsibility, identity, language, control, and power.

AI systems increasingly operate within infrastructures that transcend national borders and involve a complex interaction between states, public institutions, private companies, markets, and individuals. Data, computational resources, language models, digital platforms, and linguistic infrastructures are often developed, owned, or controlled by private actors operating across multiple jurisdictions. This raises fundamental questions concerning the nature and limits of contemporary sovereignty, the distribution of technological and economic power, and the capacity of political and legal institutions to regulate infrastructures that are simultaneously global, private, and algorithmic.

From a philosophical perspective, artificial intelligence invites a reconsideration of concepts such as autonomy, agency, responsibility, authority, subjectivity, freedom, and power. If AI systems increasingly participate in processes of communication, interpretation, classification, recommendation, and decision-making, how should the relationship between human agency and technological mediation be understood? Can traditional conceptions of autonomy and sovereignty adequately account for forms of agency that are increasingly distributed between individuals, institutions, algorithms, and technological infrastructures?

From a political perspective, AI raises questions about the transformation of sovereignty and the relationship between states, citizens, markets, and private technological actors. Who exercises power when essential infrastructures are controlled by companies operating across national borders? How does the emergence of transnational technological infrastructures affect the capacity of states and political communities to determine their own technological, economic, and communicative conditions? Does AI contribute to the redistribution of political power, or does it create new forms of concentration and dependence?

From a legal perspective, the development and deployment of AI challenge existing concepts of jurisdiction, responsibility, liability, accountability, ownership, privacy, equality, and fundamental rights. How should responsibility be allocated when decisions are produced or mediated by algorithmic systems? How can legal systems regulate technologies that operate across jurisdictions and whose infrastructures may be controlled by private actors? What new forms of regulation and governance may be required?

From an economic perspective, AI is transforming markets, production, labor, competition, and the distribution of technological and informational resources. The concentration of data, computing capacity, models, and digital infrastructures within a relatively limited number of actors raises questions concerning market power, competition, technological dependence, barriers to entry, economic sovereignty, and the distribution of value. What are the economic implications of dependence on privately controlled AI infrastructures? How might AI alter the relationship between technological innovation, market concentration, and public authority?

From a sociolinguistic perspective, AI also transforms the conditions under which language is produced, circulated, interpreted, standardized, and valued. Language models participate in the production and mediation of linguistic practices and may reproduce, reinforce, or challenge existing linguistic hierarchies. What happens to linguistic diversity when access to communication increasingly depends on AI systems trained on particular languages and forms of linguistic data? How are minority languages, dialects, accents, sociolects, and other forms of linguistic variation represented within AI infrastructures?

This issue of Exetasis, an independent journal, aims to explore the relationship between AI and sovereignty through an interdisciplinary dialogue between philosophy, political theory, law, economics, and sociolinguistics. It seeks to examine both the transformation of existing forms of sovereignty and the possibility that artificial intelligence may require a reconsideration of the concepts through which authority, autonomy, power, language, and political and economic control are understood.

Contributions may be theoretical, conceptual, empirical, comparative, historical, doctrinal, or interdisciplinary. Contributions addressing, among others, the following topics are particularly welcome.

1. AI and the Philosophy of Sovereignty

  • AI and philosophical theories of sovereignty;
  • sovereignty, autonomy, freedom, and agency;
  • AI and the transformation of human agency;
  • responsibility and accountability in human–AI relations;
  • AI, subjectivity, and the production of subjects;
  • power, knowledge, and algorithmic systems;
  • AI and the philosophical foundations of political authority;
  • technological mediation and autonomy;
  • algorithmic decision-making and the problem of responsibility;
  • AI, rationality, and the conditions of decision-making;
  • the relationship between human and artificial agency;
  • AI and the transformation of concepts of authority and control;
  • philosophical approaches to technological dependence;
  • the possibility and limits of concepts such as “machine sovereignty” or “algorithmic sovereignty.”

2. AI, Politics, and the Transformation of Sovereignty

  • AI and state sovereignty;
  • AI and political authority;
  • technological sovereignty and political autonomy;
  • states, citizens, markets, and technology companies;
  • AI and the transformation of the relationship between public and private power;
  • transnational AI infrastructures and territorial sovereignty;
  • AI and the redistribution of political power;
  • technological dependence and political autonomy;
  • AI and democratic governance;
  • algorithmic mediation of public discourse;
  • AI and political communication;
  • AI, elections, political institutions, and public administration;
  • algorithmic governance and democratic accountability;
  • AI and the changing relationship between citizens and institutions;
  • international and transnational governance of AI;
  • the emergence of new forms of technological or digital sovereignty.

3. AI, Law, Regulation, and Responsibility

  • legal theories of AI and sovereignty;
  • AI regulation and the limits of territorial jurisdiction;
  • AI and constitutional law;
  • AI and fundamental rights;
  • algorithmic decision-making and administrative law;
  • AI and judicial decision-making;
  • liability and responsibility for AI-mediated decisions;
  • accountability of AI developers, providers, deployers, and users;
  • transparency, explainability, and procedural fairness;
  • AI and privacy;
  • personal data and algorithmic surveillance;
  • discrimination and equality in AI systems;
  • intellectual property and AI;
  • copyright, training data, and language models;
  • ownership and control of AI-related resources;
  • AI and competition law;
  • regulation of dominant technological actors;
  • public procurement and AI;
  • cross-border AI systems and conflicts between legal regimes;
  • international, European, and national approaches to AI governance;
  • the relationship between public regulation and private technological governance.

4. AI, Economics, Markets, and Technological Power

  • AI and the transformation of economic sovereignty;
  • AI and market power;
  • competition and concentration in AI markets;
  • data, computational resources, and barriers to entry;
  • economic dependence on AI infrastructures;
  • AI and technological inequality;
  • the concentration of AI capabilities among private actors;
  • AI and the distribution of economic value;
  • AI and the transformation of labor and production;
  • automation and the changing organization of work;
  • AI and the economics of information;
  • AI, innovation, and competition;
  • AI and the distribution of technological rents;
  • public investment in AI infrastructures;
  • public and private ownership of technological resources;
  • economic security and technological sovereignty;
  • AI and global economic interdependence;
  • the political economy of foundation models and large-scale AI systems;
  • the economic implications of dependence on foreign AI technologies and infrastructures.

5. AI, Language, and Sociolinguistic Sovereignty

  • AI, language, and state sovereignty;
  • linguistic sovereignty and technological dependence;
  • language models and linguistic authority;
  • control over linguistic data, corpora, and language resources;
  • AI and linguistic diversity;
  • minority languages and AI development;
  • language, identity, and AI-mediated communication;
  • linguistic discrimination and algorithmic bias;
  • accent, dialect, sociolect, and linguistic variation in AI systems;
  • standardization and normalization of language through AI;
  • algorithmic homogenization of linguistic practices;
  • AI and the reproduction or transformation of linguistic hierarchies;
  • language ideologies and AI;
  • linguistic communities and technological autonomy;
  • the economic and political value of linguistic resources;
  • privately controlled linguistic infrastructures;
  • the relationship between language, technology, and collective identity;
  • AI and the future of multilingualism;
  • AI-mediated communication and changing linguistic practices.

6. AI, Individual Autonomy, and the Production of Subjects

  • AI and individual autonomy;
  • AI and self-determination;
  • predictive systems and recommendation mechanisms;
  • algorithmic influence and manipulation;
  • AI and epistemic autonomy;
  • AI-mediated access to information;
  • surveillance and algorithmic monitoring of behavior;
  • personal data and informational self-determination;
  • algorithmic profiling;
  • human agency and automated systems;
  • AI and the production of individual and collective identities;
  • language choice and AI-mediated communication;
  • algorithmic production of linguistic and social subjectivities;
  • AI, discrimination, and social inequality;
  • the relationship between individual autonomy and technological dependence.

7. AI, Knowledge, Communication, and Epistemic Sovereignty

  • AI and epistemic authority;
  • AI systems as producers, interpreters, and gatekeepers of knowledge;
  • algorithmic mediation of information;
  • AI and the production and circulation of knowledge;
  • epistemic autonomy and technological dependence;
  • AI, expertise, and institutional authority;
  • trust, credibility, and automated systems;
  • AI-generated information and public knowledge;
  • language models and the transformation of epistemic practices;
  • AI and the politics of knowledge;
  • algorithmic selection, classification, and visibility;
  • AI and the transformation of communicative authority.

8. AI Governance and New Forms of Sovereignty

  • national, European, and international approaches to AI governance;
  • sovereignty beyond the territorial state;
  • distributed and transnational forms of sovereignty;
  • technological sovereignty and economic autonomy;
  • AI and the relationship between public authority and private infrastructure;
  • public-private governance of AI;
  • self-regulation, co-regulation, and public regulation;
  • regulatory competition between jurisdictions;
  • international governance of AI infrastructures;
  • AI and the transformation of political and economic institutions;
  • technological dependence and new forms of sovereignty;
  • the relationship between linguistic, technological, political, and economic sovereignty;
  • the possible emergence of new legal, political, economic, philosophical, and sociolinguistic concepts for understanding power in the age of artificial intelligence.

The list of topics is not exhaustive. Contributions are welcome from philosophy, political theory and political science, law, economics and political economy, sociolinguistics, linguistics, linguistic anthropology, communication studies, ethics, epistemology, sociology, and related fields.

Particular attention will be given to contributions that develop dialogue across disciplinary boundaries and examine AI not simply as a technological instrument, but as a phenomenon capable of transforming the institutional, political, economic, linguistic, and conceptual conditions under which contemporary societies organize power and authority.

Abstract Submission

Authors are invited to submit an abstract of 300–500 words, accompanied by a brief biographical profile and institutional affiliation.

Abstracts should clearly present the research question or problem addressed, the main argument, and, where appropriate, the relevant theoretical, conceptual, or methodological framework.

Deadline for abstract submissions: December 20, 2026.

Abstracts should be sent to the Exetasis editorial board at:

Please indicate the following in the subject line of the email:

CFP — AI and Sovereignty

Selected abstracts will subsequently be invited to submit a full paper of approximately 8,000 words. Full submissions will undergo the editorial evaluation process established by Exetasis.

The CFP welcomes contributions in Italian, English, German, French, and Spanish.

Exetasis

Independent Journal