Data Centre Entanglements: Geopolitics, Vulnerabilities, Sustainability, Activisms

Data centres are involved in the sorting, sifting, storage, aggregation, and monetization of transactional data critical to data capitalism. Tucked away in high-rise buildings or peri-urban areas, data centres are largely invisible and fundamentally resource-intensive, and deploy extractive, energy-intensive technologies. In the context of artificial intelligence, data centre energy consumption has skyrocketed. Data Centre Entanglements addresses external challenges, specifically, contemporary geopolitical struggles between China and the USA to become the world's data hegemon and supply chain issues related to critical minerals and semiconductors, as well as internal issues such as data centre sustainability, which is particularly acute in countries facing significant water and power stresses. Given their essential infrastructure status in many countries, data centres are immune to public scrutiny, leading to transparency and accountability issues. The special relationship that data centres--in particular, hyperscale data centres owned by Big Tech--have with the State is reflected in the migration of public data to privately-owned data centres. Thomas focuses on this relationship in the context of data localization, data sovereignty, risk, the politics of greening and renewable energy, and incentives such as access to subsidized land, tax breaks, and unrestricted labour supply. The book concludes with a discussion on the democratization of data centres and makes a case for diversity in data centre ownership, including community-based ownership.

Pradip Ninan Thomas, Associate Professor, School of Communication and Arts, University of Queensland

Pradip Ninan Thomas is an Associate Professor at the School of Communication and Arts, University of Queensland. He has authored 10 monographs and co-authored and co-edited numerous books. His research interests include the political economy of communications, Digital India, the media and religion, and communications for social change.