Nomads in the Cloud: Territorial Power and the Governance of Digital Mobility

This article repositions digital nomads not as stateless figures of freedom but as central actors in evolving regimes of mobility governance. Moving beyond the lifestyle framing, we propose two lines of inquiry. First, we examine how race, class, and passport privilege shape differentiated access to mobility infrastructures co-produced by states and platforms. Second, we examine how nomads navigate and produce networked digital enclaves and cloud states—topological formations where territory is reconstituted through platforms, co-living hubs, and e-residency regimes. The article calls for scholarship that treats nomads not as exceptions to state power but as actors in its reconfiguration, where motion itself becomes a site of governance. By bridging political geography, mobility studies, and critical migration scholarship, this agenda seeks to theorize sovereignty beyond fixed borders and nomadism beyond neoliberal individualism. © Transfers 2025