The advent of the blockchain has heralded a shift in how the questions of governance and governmentality can be reconceptualized and implemented in novel ways. But its potential impacts have been a subject of fierce debate, with proponents championing its transformative potential for decentralized and participatory democracy, while skeptics caution against its possible facilitation of accelerated hyper-financialization and a new wave of digital neocolonialism.
The dissertation poses two research questions: (1) How is the adoption of blockchains in governance shaped by pre-existing institutions? (2) How does blockchain-based governance either complement existing governmentalities through an ensemble of formal rules, accepted norms, and organizational structures or challenge them to produce new ones? A multiple-case study is conducted using a mix of traditional and digital methods informed by transdisciplinary theories.
I argue that technologies like blockchains are not merely technical solutions but fundamentally embed social and political values within their designs, both influenced by and influencing the institutional contexts from which they arise. Under the theoretical framework of governing commons in the age of Web 3.0, a series of tensions emerged in blockchain-based governance, between human agency and technological agency, between decentralized citizens from the bottom-up and centralized actors from the top-down, and between global participation and local laws, cultures, and norms.
While the blockchain possesses unique features and affordances—like technical decentralization, immutability, and programmability of rules through contracts and tokens—which offer new possibilities for solving for trust, cooperation, and decision-making over common resource management, its deployment into the world requires collaboration, input, reflections, and scrutiny from stakeholders across sectors and fields.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:columbia.edu/oai:academiccommons.columbia.edu:10.7916/78bp-c821 |
| Date | January 2024 |
| Creators | Rong, Helena Hang |
| Source Sets | Columbia University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Theses |
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