Skip to main content

Digital Sovereignty: Affordances in Open Source Projects

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Software Business (ICSOB 2024)

Abstract

Digital Sovereignty as a strategic concept encompasses equity and sustainability. We explore affordances in Open Source projects that have been initiated to achieve more Digital Sovereignty. Open Source has the potential to be central for Digital Sovereignty. Our primary data set include online interviews with project teams and literature in the context of Digital Sovereignty from 2013 to 2024. By evaluating the project outputs based on affordance theory, we identify digital and economical offerings. The analysis of the impact of these offerings on the projects forms the basis for formulating measures to improve sustainable actions through Digital Sovereignty. With this work we provide a better understanding of IT-enabled organizational change and the types of affordances that are required in Digital Sovereignty transformations.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
$34.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  1. Avila Pinto, R.: Digital sovereignty or digital colonialism. SUR-Int’l J. Hum. Rights 15, 15–27 (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  2. Bechara, J., Lechner, U.: Digital sovereignty and open-source software - a discussion paper. In: Phillipson, F., Eichler, G., Erfurth, C., Fahrnberger, G. (eds.) Innovations for Community Services, I4CS 2024. CCIS, vol. 2109, pp. 397–407. Springer, Cham (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-60433-1_22

  3. Broeders, D., Cristiano, F., Kaminska, M.: In search of digital sovereignty and strategic autonomy: normative power Europe to the test of its geopolitical ambitions. JCMS J. Common Mark. Stud. 61(5), 1261–1280 (2023)

    Google Scholar 

  4. Celeste, E.: Digital sovereignty in the EU: challenges and future perspectives. In: Data Protection Beyond Borders: Transatlantic Perspectives on Extraterritoriality and Sovereignty, pp. 211–228 (2021)

    Google Scholar 

  5. Couture, S., Toupin, S.: What does the notion of “sovereignty’’ mean when referring to the digital? New Media Soc. 21(10), 2305–2322 (2019)

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  6. Falkner, G., et al.: Digital sovereignty - rhetoric and reality. J. Eur. Public Policy 1–22 (2024)

    Google Scholar 

  7. Floridi, L.: The fight for digital sovereignty: what it is, and why it matters, especially for the EU. Philos. Technol. 33, 369–378 (2020)

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  8. Fries, I, et al.: Towards a Layer Model for Digital Sovereignty: A Holistic Approach. In: Hämmerli, B., Helmbrecht, U., Hommel, W., Kunczik, L., Pickl, S. (eds.) Critical Information Infrastructures Security, CRITIS 2022. LNCS, vol. 13723, pp. 119–139. Springer, Cham (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-35190-7_9

  9. Fromm, J., et al.: A systematic review of empirical affordance studies: recommendations for affordance research in information systems. In: ECIS, pp. 1–11 (2020)

    Google Scholar 

  10. Gacek, C., Arief, B.: The many meanings of open source. IEEE Softw. 21(1), 34–40 (2004)

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  11. Gibson, J.J.: The theory of affordances. Hilldale, USA 1(2), 67–82 (1977)

    Google Scholar 

  12. Glasze, G., Odzuck, E., Staples, R.: Was heißt digitale Souveränität? Diskurse, Praktiken und Voraussetzungen individueller und staatlicher Souveränität im digitialen Zeitalter, vol. 3. transcript Verlag, 1–320 (2022)

    Google Scholar 

  13. Glasze, G., et al.: Contested spatialities of digital sovereignty. Geopolitics 28(2), 919–958 (2023)

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  14. Herlo, B., Ullrich, A., Vladova, G.: Sustainable digital sovereignty: interdependencies between sustainable digitalization and digital sovereignty. Weizenbaum Series. 32. Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society - The German Internet Institute, Berlin. Working Paper, pp. 5–39 (2023)

    Google Scholar 

  15. Hummel, P., et al.: Data sovereignty: a review. Big Data Soc. 8(1), 1–17 (2021)

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  16. Jones, K.S.: What is an affordance? How shall affordances be refined? Routledge, pp. 107–114 (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  17. Kagermann, H., et al.: Digitale Souveränitat: Status quo und Handlungsfelder. acatech IMPULS 1–29 (2021)

    Google Scholar 

  18. Kim, S., Yingru, J.: Gap analysis. Int. Encycl. Strateg. Commun. 8, 1–6 (2018)

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  19. Lecy, J.D., Beatty, K.E.: Representative literature reviews using constrained snowball sampling and citation network analysis. SSRN Electron. J. 1–15 (2012)

    Google Scholar 

  20. Leonardi, P.: Affordances and agency: toward the clarification and integration of fractured concepts. MIS Q. 47(4) (2023)

    Google Scholar 

  21. Lehmann, D.R., et al.: Marketing Research. Addison-Wesley, Reading (1998)

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  22. Moore, J.E., et al.: Developing a comprehensive definition of sustainability. Implement. Sci. 12, 1–8 (2017)

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  23. Moerel, L., Timmers, P.: Reflections on digital sovereignty. EU cyber direct. Res. Focus Ser. 1–32 (2021)

    Google Scholar 

  24. United Nations: The Sustainable Development Goals Report. Department of Economic and Social Affairs, pp. 1–80 (2022). https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/report/2022/

  25. Nosratabadi, S., et al.: Sustainable business models: a review. Sustainability 11(6), 1–30 (2019)

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  26. Open Source Initiative. The Open Source Definition (2024). https://opensource.org/osd. Accessed 02 Oct 2024

  27. Pohle, J.: Digital sovereignty. A new key concept of digital policy in Germany and Europe, pp. 1–26. Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, Berlin (2020)

    Google Scholar 

  28. Pohle, J., Thiel, T.: Digital sovereignty. Internet Policy Rev. 9(4), 1–19 (2020)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. European Parliament: Digital agenda for Europe (2024). https://www.europarl.europa.eu/factsheets/en/sheet/64/digital-agenda-for-europ

  30. Przybylek, A., Kotecka, D.: Making agile retrospectives more awesome. Federated Conference on Computer Science and Information Systems (FedCSIS), vol. 11, pp. 1211–1216. IEEE (2017)

    Google Scholar 

  31. Perens, B.: The open source definition. Open Sources Voices Open Source Revol. 1, 171–188 (1999)

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  32. Seidel, S., Recker, J., Vom Brocke, J.: Sensemaking and sustainable practicing: functional affordances of information systems in green transformations. MIS Q. 37(4), 1275–1299 (2013)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  33. Volkoff, O., Strong, D.M.: Critical realism and affordances: theorizing IT-associated organizational change processes. MIS Q. 37(3), 819–834 (2013)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  34. Volkoff, O., Strong, D.M.: Affordance theory and how to use it in IS research. In: Companion to Management Information Systems, pp. 232–245. Routledge (2017)

    Google Scholar 

  35. Weaver, P., et al.: Sustainable technology development, pp. 1–304. Routledge (2017)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We thank our partners, research colleagues, and the LIONS project. LIONS is funded by dtec.bw of the Research Center for Digitization and Technology of the Bundeswehr, financed by the European Union, NextGenerationEU.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Martha Klare .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2025 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this paper

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this paper

Klare, M., Lechner, U. (2025). Digital Sovereignty: Affordances in Open Source Projects. In: Papatheocharous, E., Farshidi, S., Jansen, S., Hyrynsalmi, S. (eds) Software Business. ICSOB 2024. Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing, vol 539. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-85849-9_2

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-85849-9_2

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-031-85848-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-031-85849-9

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics