Abstract:  Noting the “awakening” of data cognition in the governance of global cross-border data flows over the past half-century, this article calls for a deeper understanding and exploration of the cultural dynamics underlying this phenomenon from a constructivist perspective. It identifies “cultural value” as one of the key driving factors in the governance approaches of four representative countries and regions: the US, China, the EU, and Russia. We extract “attribute cognition” and “value pursuit” from the core of data culture to the center of data governance under the concept of “evaluative cognition.” By observing how policy stances change, we separate different evaluative cognitions from a complex game field through a historical and comparative analysis, and thus provide a theoretical understanding of the current intense geopolitical game around data.

Keywords:  cross‐border data flows; cultural value; data governance; evaluative cognition

Published:   27 August 2025

Issue:   Vol 13 (2025): The Geopolitics of Transnational Data Governance (In Progress)