Infrastructure Commoning? Contributions of FAIR-Care Integration Projects for the Future of Digital Sovereignty

In the span of five fast-paced years, data practices and infrastructures have been transformed by key technopolitical interventions. In the space of data management, CARE principles were articulated to introduce key questions of Indigenous sovereignty and stewardship that have been mostly absent from this space (Carroll et al., 2020). Debates about digital governance and sovereignty started to reach an effervescent point with critiques of infrastructural concentration, data extraction, and platform dominance (Zuboff 2023; Terranova 2022; Srnicek 2019). In this paper, we engage the new moment in this debate concerning the question of domain-specific FAIR-CARE integration and suggest alternatives for solidarity building around digital sovereignty projects (Carroll et al., 2021; Jennings et al., 2023; Murillo, 2023). Based on the study of the commons as an alternative governance framework that is not state or private-based, we discuss the experience of the Socio-Environmental Knowledge Commons (SEEKCommons) project in common tools and infrastructures for allies to support Indigenous, Latino, and Black digital projects. We elaborate on the concept of "infrastructural commoning" as a contribution to the work of FAIR-CARE integration in a space that necessitates more clarity concerning the importance of participatory governance mechanisms that involve indigenous and non-indigenous allies working on common infrastructures that protect data security and sovereignty in a context of extensive data extraction.