Digital technologies can create novel clusters of societal entities. This can lead to tensions in relationships between existing societal entities and in some cases it requires a rethinking of the structures that characterize these relationships. An example of a digital technology that has challenged existing relationships between traditional businesses, legal authorities and the public is Uber, an application-based transportation networking company. One way of understanding such complex relationships is in terms of enkaptic interlacements. The theory of enkapsis is a philosophical tool, based on a specific view of reality, which may guide a novel understanding of the relationship between artefacts and entities and between social structuresthat exist in reality. It distinguishes between three main types of relationships between societal entities, namely part-whole relationships, enkaptic interlacements and interlinkages. If we apply this rather abstract theory to the complex case of Uber, we find, for example, that Uber has a part-whole relationship with the information technology infrastructure. This implies thatwithout digital technologies, Uber loses its meaning and will not function according to its primary function, namely to connect drivers to passengers. We explore how the theory of enkapsis can explain a multiplicity of other complex relationships and explain the different responses to Uber in different countries, cultural settings and legal systems
