Paolo Gerbaudo | Lightnews

UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose @iipp-ucl.bsky.social · 4d

✍️ Why Digital Sovereignty Matters

In the wake of recent cloud blackouts, IIPP Professor @ceciliarikap.bsky.social and @paologerbaudo.bsky.social highlight the importance of #DigitalSovereignty and dangers of technological subordination.

🔗 Read their @tribunemagazine article here: buff.ly/euZgJ8z

Alameda Institute @alameda.institute · 6d

We are happy to welcome our new Senior Researcher, Paolo Garbaudo / @paologerbaudo.bsky.social!

Paolo Gerbaudo @paologerbaudo.bsky.social · 9d

I am interested in the politics of technology, beyond digital.

Paolo Gerbaudo @paologerbaudo.bsky.social · 10d

8/ All in all, coming back from this visit and having seen many other models and showrooms one can only be in awe of the level of technological sophistication of this industry. It will be very hard for Western companies to compete.

Paolo Gerbaudo @paologerbaudo.bsky.social · 10d

7/ The quality of cars is very high. #XPeng is the EV firm with the highest customer satisfaction in China, and it has started to export to the Middle East. In the picture the new P7 model.

Paolo Gerbaudo @paologerbaudo.bsky.social · 10d

6/ Strong vertical integration was clearly seen in the plant, with different stages in the car production happening at short distance. This is to a great extent enabled by the fact that EVs are far more simple mechanically compared with internal combustion engine cars.

Paolo Gerbaudo @paologerbaudo.bsky.social · 10d

5/ It is now also producing its own custom-built AI microchip called "Turing", in a manifestation of its broader ambition in "future mobility" and self-driving cars.

Paolo Gerbaudo @paologerbaudo.bsky.social · 10d

4/ Differently from #BYD, which also produces it own batteries, #XPeng sources them from other companies and in particular CALB. But otherwise the firm is strongly vertically integrated as it produces internally the car body, power train, electronics and software.

Paolo Gerbaudo @paologerbaudo.bsky.social · 10d

3/ Over the course of the visit we saw different production departments: the stamping, welding, final assembly and packing. The first two sections are almost completely automated, while the latter are still quite labor-intensive.

Paolo Gerbaudo @paologerbaudo.bsky.social · 10d

2/ However automotive is still very much the core business of the company and where it is reaping impressive results. Last month the company celebrated a 73% growth in deliveries and its stock price has surged significantly this year.

Paolo Gerbaudo @paologerbaudo.bsky.social · 10d

1/ One of many EV brands in China (by some counts as many as 90) #Xpeng has become famous recently because of the IRON humanoid Robot. The firm CEO Xiaopeng He was described as "Chinese Elon Musk" with ambitions in many other industries (such as low altitude flying vehicles).

Paolo Gerbaudo @paologerbaudo.bsky.social · 10d

Yesterday I visited the #Xpeng production plant in Guangzhou. It was an opportunity to see the production process in person at one of the emerging Chinese EV firms. The impression was one of high sophistication and a reminder that the Chinese EV world is far bigger than #BYD. 🧵

UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose @iipp-ucl.bsky.social · 13d

✍️ Why Digital Sovereignty Matters

In the wake of recent cloud blackouts, IIPP Professor @ceciliarikap.bsky.social and @paologerbaudo.bsky.social highlight the importance of #DigitalSovereignty and dangers of technological subordination.

🔗 Read their @tribunemagazine article here: buff.ly/93Wo42J

Benjamin Moffitt @benmoffitt.bsky.social · 16d

🎆 NEW OA ARTICLE ALERT 🎆

'Populism, visual technologies, and the self-mediation of ‘the people’ from the 2002 Venezuelan coup to the 2021 US Capitol riots' in @risjnl.bsky.social

How do populist publics visually represent themselves & how have shifts in visual technologies altered this process?

Populism, visual technologies, and the self-mediation of ‘the people’ from the 2002 Venezuelan coup to the 2021 US Capitol riots | Review of International Studies | Cambridge Core

Populism, visual technologies, and the self-mediation of ‘the people’ from the 2002 Venezuelan coup to the 2021 US Capitol riots

www.cambridge.org

Paolo Gerbaudo @paologerbaudo.bsky.social · 21d

The last 2 weeks saw major cloud outages from #AmazonWebServices and #MicrosoftAzure affecting thousands of websites. As @ceciliarikap.bsky.social and I argue in @tribunemagazine.bsky.social this event is a wakeup call about the security risks of tech dependency. tribunemag.co.uk/2025/11/why-...

Why Digital Sovereignty Matters

Amazon and Microsoft’s cloud blackouts paralysed public services across the globe this autumn — a warning of what happens when essential infrastructure is left in the hands of private US monopolies.

tribunemag.co.uk

Cecilia Rikap @ceciliarikap.bsky.social · 22d

What can we learn from @awscloud.bsky.social and @microsoft.com recent cloud blackouts?

The extent of dependency is so deep & widespread that we must develop #digital #sovereignty

This is what @paologerbaudo.bsky.social & I explain for @tribunemagazine.bsky.social

tribunemag.co.uk/2025/11/why-...

Why Digital Sovereignty Matters

Amazon and Microsoft’s cloud blackouts paralysed public services across the globe this autumn — a warning of what happens when essential infrastructure is left in the hands of private US monopolies.

tribunemag.co.uk

Paolo Gerbaudo @paologerbaudo.bsky.social · Oct 2

Thanks Osmond, I think that the initial tweet captures well the contradiction of conflict around the state that we are now witnessing

Paolo Gerbaudo @paologerbaudo.bsky.social · Sep 3

eheh

Paolo Gerbaudo @paologerbaudo.bsky.social · Sep 3

I have missed this

Paolo Gerbaudo @paologerbaudo.bsky.social · Sep 3

The article is part of a special issue on 'The Political Economy of Green-Digital Transition', guest edited by Edelmilson Paraná on Globalizations. We also want to thank the anonymous reviewers for the useful comments on our article.

Paolo Gerbaudo @paologerbaudo.bsky.social · Sep 3

This shortcoming is becoming even more apparent as the world faces the return of (new) great power politics, and the EU finds itself under heavy pressure from the Trump's administration to renounce to any pretence of political autonomy and technological sovereignty.

Paolo Gerbaudo @paologerbaudo.bsky.social · Sep 3

Further we underline (2) the emphasis on technology adoption, rather than the expansion of productive capacities (basically the EU continues to adopt much of the tech it adopts). This leads to the paradox that NGEU may further entrench EU tech dependency on the US and China.

Paolo Gerbaudo @paologerbaudo.bsky.social · Sep 3

We highlight: (1) a tension between two competing narratives, short-term economic recovery ('recovery narrative'), and long-term technological transformation ('modernisation narrative'), with the NGEU ending up focusing more on the former.

Paolo Gerbaudo @paologerbaudo.bsky.social · Sep 3

We critically examine the strategic contradictions of NGEU, both in its overarching conception narratives and the details of its concrete policy content, to assess the degree to which the plan has fulfilled its promise of future-proofing the political economy of the EU.

Paolo Gerbaudo @paologerbaudo.bsky.social · Sep 3

Very glad to see our new article "Transition without transformation? The strategic limits of NextGenerationEU green-digital transition plans" co-authored with Walter Haeusl, out in Globalizations! www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Transition without transformation? The strategic limits of NextGenerationEU green-digital transition plans

This article critically examines the strategic vision underpinning NextGenerationEU (NGEU) and its ambition of promoting a green-digital transition. Through a discourse and policy analysis of EU-le...

www.tandfonline.com

Francesco Bailo @francescobailo.bsky.social · Aug 28

We have a 🚨 new open access paper 🚨 with @polcommjournal.bsky.social We show how platforms can simultaneously concentrate and fragment political power. We analysed Italy's Five Star Movement across 5 platforms to understand multi-platform dynamics in political organisations. doi.org/10.1080/1058...

Affording Fragmented Audiences: Multi-Platform Deliberation within the Five Star Movement

We examine how multi-platform digital environments influence intra-party dynamics within political organizations, focusing on the Italian Five Star Movement (M5S) as a paradigmatic case of extreme ...

doi.org

Instituto Meridiano @institutomeridiano.org · Jun 24

Y muchas gracias a @luisaguado.bsky.social, Cristina de Benito y @paologerbaudo.bsky.social.

Las discusiones en profundidad sobre la sociología del cambio climático, los conflictos en el despliegue de renovables y la reindustrialización verde es lo que necesitamos ahora mismo.

Este es el camino.

Paolo Gerbaudo @paologerbaudo.bsky.social · Jun 13

Varieties of Religious Experience: Tech Conference Variety.

Doug Henwood @doughenwood.bsky.social · Jun 12

fresh audio product:

• Paolo Gerbaudo @paologerbaudo.bsky.social on the Chinese electric vehicle maker BYD’s rise
• Andrew Hartman, author of Karl Marx in America, on the bearded one’s reception in the US

www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html#S...

Paolo Gerbaudo @paologerbaudo.bsky.social · Jun 3

Another exhibit of the prominence of the security frame in post-global discourse; but where the notion of security is geared exclusively towards defence. Many who find themselves in a difficult economic situation in reading this will ask: “Secure at home? Really?”

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