Call for Papers: "Digital Economy and Development in the Global South: Regulation, Labor, and Technological Autonomy"

Digital Economy and Development in the Global South: Regulation, Labor, and Technological Autonomy

The International Electronic Journal of Political Economy of Information and Communication Technologies (EPTIC) invite submissions for the Thematic Dossier "Digital Economy and Development in the Global South: Regulation, Labor, and Technological Autonomy." The dossier is organized by professors Manoel Dourado Bastos (State University of Londrina), César Bolaño (Federal University of Sergipe), and Peichi Chung (Chinese University of Hong Kong). Texts must be submitted by 02/10/2027.

The contemporary debate on the digital economy has been largely shaped by perspectives centered on the countries of the Global North. In contrast, this dossier starts from the premise that the experiences of Asia, Latin America, and Africa reveal their own and contradictory trajectories that challenge this hegemonic narrative. Its goal is to bring together research that, from a critical perspective of the political economy of communication and culture (PEC), analyzes the dynamics of digital economy development in the Global South, with special emphasis on regulation, platform labor, and technological sovereignty policies. A central axis that unites the organizers' research is the recognition of the active and fundamental role of the State in these processes. Professor Peichi Chung's work demonstrates how new media industries in Asia reflect a state-led development model, in which governments drive participation in the global economy through technological and political support (Chung, 2009). Her comparative studies show different levels of state involvement: while in South Korea the State and local companies act as significant actors in industrial dynamics, in Singapore the State plays a primary role in partnership with multinational corporations (Chung, 2016). This analysis connects directly with Professor César Bolaño's perspective, for whom the regulation of digital platforms must be subordinated to a national development project that guarantees technological and cultural autonomy, subordinating science, technology, and innovation policies to a project centered on the population's needs (Bolaño, 2023a; Bolaño, 2023b). For both Chung and Bolaño, state action is a decisive variable for escaping passive subordination to large transnational corporations and building authentic development trajectories. Manoel Dourado Bastos, in turn, has played a fundamental role as an epistemologist of Brazilian PEC, establishing dialogues and comparisons with other critical paradigms active in the field of communication, including those inspired by the Frankfurtian tradition or new readings of Marx (Bastos, 2025). Recently, he has expanded his interest in China's digital sovereignty policies (Bastos et al, 2023; Bastos et al, 2026).

The call brings into dialogue the experiences of different regions of the Global South, emphasizing the need for a South-South dialogue for the construction of critical knowledge and autonomous public policies. While Latin America attempts movements of conglomeration of national platforms (such as iFood and Rappi) and faces the challenge of data extractivism and technological dependence (Bolaño, 2023b), East Asia, with emphasis on the cases of South Korea and Singapore, adopts active industrial policies that demonstrate how government support can enable countries with limited domestic markets to participate in the world economy through the development of new technologies (Chung, 2009; Chung, 2016). Chung's research also points to a critique of creative industry policies that focus excessively on economic productivity, advocating for labor-centered governance that preserves spaces for independent development and genuine innovation. Chung, 2021; Chung, 2025). 

Among the suggested topics for submission are:

• Digital colonialism, data extractivism, and technological sovereignty;
• State-led development models in the digital economy;
• Regulation of digital platforms and national development projects;
• Platform labor, precariousness, and inequalities of gender, race, and class;
• Geopolitics of information and data concentration as new frontiers of capitalism;
• Cultural and industrial policies for the digital economy in Asia, Latin America, and Africa;
• Regional integration and platform conglomerates in the Global South (iFood, Rappi, Shopee, Lazada);
• Video game industry, e-sports, and cultural policies in East Asia and Latin America;
• Labor governance in e-sports and the role of the State in professionalization and athlete welfare;
• South-South cultural flows and the circulation of peripheral digital cultures;
• Labor cooperatives and public platforms as alternatives to platform capitalism;
• Political economy of digital infrastructure (data centers, cable networks, 5G).

This dossier thus seeks to foster a critical and transnational dialogue, aligned with EPTIC Journal's tradition of analyzing power structures in communication and culture, and with Chung and Bolaño's emphasis on the need for proactive public and state policies for sovereign and just digital development. Both texts that address theoretical contributions to the field and empirical articles that analyze case studies in Global South countries are welcome. Texts must be between 10 and 20 pages (between 25,000 and 45,000 characters, including maps, graphs, and figures). Publication guidelines can be found at: https://periodicos.ufs.br/eptic.

References:

BASTOS, Manoel Dourado et al. Soberania digital. In: PAUTASSO, Diego; VADELL, Javier; BOKSER, Julián; STÉDILE, Miguel Enrique (org.). Dicionário do socialismo com características chinesas. São Paulo: Expressão Popular, 2026.
BASTOS, Manoel Dourado. Materiais para uma reconstrução da dialética na Comunicação: a crítica dialética da indústria cultural e as ligações entre Teoria Crítica, Nova Leitura de Marx e Economia Política da Comunicação. Revista FAMECOS, v. 32, n. 1, p. e45639-e45639, 2025. Revista FAMECOS, v. 32, n. 1, p. e45639-e45639, 2025. Available at: https://revistaseletronicas.pucrs.br/revistafamecos/article/download/45639/28950. Accessed on: Oct. 8, 2026.
BASTOS, Manoel Dourado et al. Grande Firewall da China ou soberania digital?  Contrasenso, Boletín del Grupo de Trabajo Economía política de la información, la comunicación y la cultura. Year 1, Issue No. 2: Platform Capitalism and Regional Alternatives, December 2024. Available at: https://www.clacso.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/V1_Contrasensos_N2.pdf. Accessed on: Oct. 8, 2026.
BOLAÑO, César. Sobre regulação de plataformas e desenvolvimento. TELETIME News, June 12, 2023a. Available at: https://teletime.com.br/12/06/2023/sobre-regulacao-de-plataformas-e-desenvolvimento/. Accessed on: Aug. 13, 2026.
BOLAÑO, César. Plataformas digitais, desenvolvimento e integração latino-americana. TELETIME News, Nov. 20, 2023b. Available at: https://teletime.com.br/20/11/2023/plataformas-digitais-desenvolvimento-e-integracao-latino-americana/. Accessed on: Aug. 13, 2026.
CHUNG, Peichi. The Dynamics of New Media Globalization in Asia: A Comparative Study of the Online Gaming Industries in South Korea and Singapore. In: HJORTH, Larissa; CHAN, Dean (ed.). Gaming Cultures and Place in Asia-Pacific. New York: Routledge, 2009. p. 58-77.
CHUNG, Pei-chi. The Globally Integrated Network of South Korean Online Game Industry. In: FUNG, Anthony (ed.). Global Game Industries and Cultural Policy. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016. p. 153-171.
CHUNG, Peichi. South Korea's esports industry in Northeast Asia: History, ecosystem and digital labor. In Lee, M. CHUNG, P. (eds.). Media Technologies for Work and Play in East Asia: Critical Perspectives on Japan and the Two Koreas. Bristol, UK. 2021. pp. 229-248.
CHUNG, Peichi. Digital labor and computational gaming in esports. International Journal of Esports Studies, v3, n.1, p. 1-20, 2025. Avaiable at:  https://research.cuhk.edu.hk/en/publications/digital-labor-and-computational-gaming-in-esports/. Accessed on: 13 ago. 2026.