Call for Papers: Critical infrastructure and open data

The two most recent Danish digitization strategies show a shift in the political and institutional framework for the use of public data, including geodata. The Danish joint public digitization strategy 2022-2025 (In Danish) places particular emphasis on making more public data available to citizens, businesses, researchers and public authorities, so that innovation in society can be strengthened. Here, the Danish Data Guide, the Danish Data Distributor and the continuation of Open Data DK were central tools in the ambition to make data more accessible and uniform.

In the successor, the Danish Joint Public Digitization Strategy 2026–2029 (In Danish), a security policy dimension emerges. The need for a coherent digital infrastructure continues to be emphasized, but data is now part of a narrative characterized by digital sovereignty, geopolitical uncertainty, and the protection of critical infrastructure. Where the previous strategy focused on expanded sharing, open standards and “digitization as a driving force”, the new strategy operates with a more restrictive understanding of data, which can be both a societal resource and a point of vulnerability. It changes the premises for how geodata can be accessed, shared and exhibited – and thus also the traditional Danish role as a frontrunner for open public data.

This strategic shift also raises questions about the practices of cartography. To what extent can spatial visualizations continue to be detailed and openly accessible? Can an increasing focus on security lead to a return to cartographic traditions from the Cold War, where generalization, obfuscation or selective publication of map data were integral tools? Or do we rather see the contours of a new form of digital cartography, where access levels, dynamic generalization and layered data structures become central techniques in the trade-off between openness and risk?

This call for papers invites contributions that are at the intersection of digitization policy, geodata management and cartographic practice. We are looking for theoretical analyses as well as empirical cases that can shed light on how a shift between openness and security can change both data regimes and spatial representation in Denmark.

 

DEADLINES:

• Deadline for submission of expressions of interest: August 15, 2026
• Deadline for submission of contributions: November 22, 2026

 

EDITORS:

• Stig Roar Svenningsen, Senior Researcher at the Royal Danish Library, stsv@kb.dk
• Thomas Theis Nielsen, Associate Professor at Department of Humanities and Technology at Roskilde University, nielsentt@ruc.dk