Show Notes
Event Tickets: Political Economy in a Time of Monsters Welcome back to After Order - a series from Macrodose and the Alameda Institute - exploring power, sovereignty, and crisis in today’s unstable world. In this week’s episode, we turn to Digital Sovereignty in the age of Big Tech. What does it mean that the infrastructures underpinning our everyday lives - from search and cloud computing to communication and logistics - are owned and controlled by a tiny handful of Silicon Valley elites? What does that concentration of power mean for democracy, for states, and for the possibility of political autonomy in the digital age? And what, if anything, can we do about it? Joining host James Meadway to explore these questions are Cecilia Rikap and Paolo Gerbaudo. Cecilia is Professor of Economics and Head of Research at the Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose at University College London. Paolo is Senior Researcher at the Faculty of Political Science and Sociology at the Complutense University of Madrid, and author of The Great Recoil: Politics after Populism and Pandemic. In 2025, Cecilia and Paolo co-authored a major report for the Alameda Institute titled Reclaiming Digital Sovereignty: A Roadmap to Build a Digital Stack for People and the Planet. The report sets out a bold vision: to treat digital infrastructure as a public good - one that is democratically governed, ecologically sustainable, and oriented toward social need rather than private profit. Their argument centres on a simple but far-reaching claim, that digital infrastructure is not just technical - it’s geopolitical. From the dominance of US Big Tech to the rise of Chinese platform ecosystems, control over data, computation, and networks has rapidly become a fundamental and contested terrain of global power. But if that’s true, then the challenge is not just to critique existing systems - it’s to build new ones. What would it take to construct a public-interest digital stack? Who has the capacity to do it? And how do you navigate a world shaped both by corporate monopolies and intensifying geopolitical competition? In a moment where sovereignty is increasingly exercised through platforms and protocols, this question becomes unavoidable. So what would it mean to reclaim digital infrastructure? All that and more, in today’s After Order.
More from Macrodose
This week on MACRODOSE we’re publishing a special bonus episode with former leader of the Green Party, Caroline Lucas, and environmental philosopher and activist, Professor Rupert Read.
On this week's Macrodose, James Meadway looks at what treasury sources have begun trailing of next week’s budget (0:38), Microsoft pulling out of a data centre project in Essex (5:47), and how falling tech stocks have shown the AI bubble is reaching its limits (8:26). Subscribe to support the show at patreon.com/Macrodose. Your pledge is a donation supporting free public education; perks are thank-you gifts for your support. Got a question or comment? Reach out to us at [email protected]. To learn more about the work we do at Planet B Productions, head to planetbproductions.co.uk. Listen to Death In Westminster - a new documentary podcast from Planet B Productions & Novara Media:https://novaramedia.com/category/audio/death-in-westminster/#the-station
On this week's Macrodose, James Meadway looks at whether the UK really should commit to an arbitrary 3.5% target for defence spending (0:39), the IMF’s world economic outlook report and what’s missing from it (7:08), and the ongoing unrest and protests against conditions in the french education system (9:08). Subscribe to support the show at patreon.com/Macrodose. Your pledge is a donation supporting free public education; perks are thank-you gifts for your support. Got a question or comment? Reach out to us at [email protected]. To learn more about the work we do at Planet B Productions, head to planetbproductions.co.uk. Listen to Death In Westminster - a new documentary podcast from Planet B Productions & Novara Media:https://novaramedia.com/category/audio/death-in-westminster/#the-station
On this week's Macrodose, James Meadway looks at how the year ahead might be a moment of massive divergence in the world economy (8:03), much needed economic policy introduced by the Greens at party conference (3:26), and an update on the road ahead for food prices as El Nino builds (0:39). Subscribe to support the show at patreon.com/Macrodose. Your pledge is a donation supporting free public education; perks are thank-you gifts for your support. Got a question or comment? Reach out to us at [email protected]. To learn more about the work we do at Planet B Productions, head to planetbproductions.co.uk. Listen to Death In Westminster - a new documentary podcast from Planet B Productions & Novara Media: https://novaramedia.com/category/audio/death-in-westminster/#the-station
On this week's Macrodose, James Meadway looks at Andy Burnham’s first speech to Labour party conference as prime minister, his proposals to modify the triple lock on pensions, and how he sets out his stall to solve the crisis in social care. Subscribe to support the show at patreon.com/Macrodose. Your pledge is a donation supporting free public education; perks are thank-you gifts for your support. Got a question or comment? Reach out to us at [email protected]. To learn more about the work we do at Planet B Productions, head to planetbproductions.co.uk. Listen to Death In Westminster - a new documentary podcast from Planet B Productions & Novara Media:https://novaramedia.com/category/audio/death-in-westminster/#the-station