Cecilia Rikap, researcher: ‘Microsoft and Google are like salt: they’re on every plate’
The economist, who studies large technology companies’ monopoly on knowledge, is advising the Brazilian government on the development of a sovereign digital strategy
“I work in what is called intellectual monopolization, specifically that of digital capitalism.” This is how Cecilia Rikap, a 40-year-old economics professor at University College London and research director at its Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose, introduces herself. In recent years, Rikap has focused her research on examining how major technology companies monopolize the creation of knowledge — not just technological information, but also academic data, user data, and the production process itself — and how this consolidates their dominance in the market.
