History is full of sweeping declarations—moments when thinkers and pundits have confidently pronounced the end of one grand force or another. Be it the ‘End of History’, famously proposed by Francis Fukuyama after the fall of the Soviet Union, or the ‘End of Geography’, floated with the rise of a hyper-connected digital world, such claims tend to overlook a central truth that history, geography and the structures they produce rarely die; they just evolve. The grand revolutions of the past, be it industrial, technological, or ideological, have consistently altered the course of human affairs, but none have obliterated the foundations on which societies are built. And it is precisely this hubristic assumption that GeoTechnoGraphy seeks to demolish with analytical clarity.
Fukuyama’s 1992 thesis, that liberal democracy was the final form of human government, was lauded in a world giddy from the collapse of communism and the global spread of capitalism. But critics like Eric Hobsbawm, the great Marxist historian, were quick to dismantle the triumph embedded in Fukuyama’s worldview. Hobsbawm saw Fukuyama’s ideas as historically naive and ideologically premature. He argued that assuming the end of ideological conflict was not only empirically flawed, given the ongoing struggles over inequality, nationalism, and resource distribution, but also dangerous, as it encouraged political complacency in the West. Hobsbawm warned that capitalism without the counterbalance of socialism or state control would deepen inequalities and destabilise democracies, an insight that seems increasingly prescient today.
GeoTechnoGraphy enters this intellectual landscape not as a direct rebuttal to Fukuyama or invoking Hobsbawm, but as a sophisticated response to a newer utopian myth, that technology, especially in its current digital form, has ended geography. Samir Saran and Anirban Sarma confront this notion head on. Their central argument is that while digital technology has undoubtedly collapsed distances and blurred national borders, the nation-state has not withered away. On the contrary, they assert, it has been both challenged and reinforced by the digital age.
The book introduces the concept of geotechnography as a framework that brings together geography, the age-old stage of political and territorial struggle, and technology, now the dominant force reshaping how power is wielded and identities are formed. The authors argue that this convergence is the defining characteristic of our era. The fourth industrial revolution, marked by the spread of digital platforms, big data, and artificial intelligence, has created a paradox in the sense that even as we become more digitally interconnected, geopolitical rivalries remain fierce, often intensified by the very technologies that claim to transcend them.
Saran and Sarma demonstrate that the dream of borderless digital harmony is increasingly undermined by the real-world implications of technological power. Social media and digital platforms operate across national lines, yet their effects, whether in stoking tribalism, manipulating elections, or enabling surveillance, are local and political. The authors examine how big tech firms have become geopolitical actors in their own right, shaping public discourse and market access, while often resisting regulation. Far from ending geography, technology has become a new terrain over which state power is projected and contested.
The book is strongest in its discussion of power. Traditional forms of state diplomacy and governance have been partially eclipsed by the influence of digital platforms, whose opaque algorithms and data monopolies raise serious questions about sovereignty and democratic accountability. The control of information, once monopolised by governments, now sits in the hands of a few private corporations that remain largely unaccountable to the public. This new architecture of power, where influence is mediated through code and platforms rather than policy and parliament, poses existential questions for democracy itself.
Yet, it is not all dystopia. The book acknowledges the opportunities technology provides, like the empowerment of civic movements, the creation of new economic spaces, and the potential for decentralised governance. The authors do not dismiss these gains, but they urge readers to remain wary of the contradictions they carry. Digital societies offer a promise of inclusivity, but also the threat of collapse under their own contradictions, especially as misinformation, surveillance, and tribalism eat away at institutional trust.
The idea of identity is another major theme the book explores with nuance. The digital realm has given rise to new forms of belonging and self-expression, but often in tension with traditional loyalties to land, language, or community. The authors describe this as a form of new tribalism, where affiliations are shaped less by geography and more by algorithmically curated content.
What sets the book apart is its balance of rigorous historical perspective and contemporary analysis. The authors situate today’s technological transformations within a longer arc of societal change, showing that while every new medium disrupts existing power structures, it never entirely replaces them.
If there is a weakness in the book, it lies in its broad scope. Readers looking for immediate policy prescriptions may find the text more reflective than prescriptive. The questions it poses about digital sovereignty, the survival of democracy, and the future of global governance are vital, but the answers remain open-ended. Yet this can be seen as a strength, instead of a flaw, in a world where the pace of change defies certainty.
The book is timely as it challenges simplistic narratives about the triumph of technology or the obsolescence of geography, and instead presents a textured view of a world in flux. After all, in contemporary times, the map is not dead, but has just gone digital.
Book details:
Title: GeoTechnoGraphy: Mapping Power and Identity in the Digital Age
Authors: Samir Saran, Anirban Sarma
Publisher: Penguin Random House
Number of pages: 328
Price: Rs 699