Global clouds and local storms: The critical governance of Google’s data centre infrastructure development

The project at a glance

Start date:

01 Jan 2021
Duration in months:

48
Funding:

FNR – Luxembourg
Principal Investigator(s):

Constance CARR

Karinne Lynda MADRON

About

Google is one of the largest investors in data centres worldwide. As Google expands its data centre footprint, it leverages its symbolic and financial power while engaging with public authorities whose capabilities it often far outweighs. The aim of this project is to understand Google’s mode of operation when it comes to its data centre development and how it challenges pre-existing modes of governance and planning. The project brings together three orbits of literature. The first one is critical data centre studies–a growing literature which critically discusses the environmental, social and political dimensions of data centres. Secondly, the project is informed by existing research on the influence of large digital corporations on urban governance. Thirdly, debates within infrastructure studies on how various modes of infrastructural (in)visibility are mobilised to achieve different goals are also relevant to the project. Qualitative methods are used to examine two cases: the village of Bissen in Luxembourg–where a Google data centre project has been under discussion for several years–and the Province of Groningen in the Netherlands where Google already operates a data centre and has two others under construction. Preliminary observations indicate that Google uses agenda-steering tactics when planning data centres. Those tactics are underpinned by the controlled visibility of these infrastructures. The project sheds light on how large digital corporations influence not only urban governance but also infrastructural development. The project is linked to the FNR CORE Project DIGI-GOV: https://urbanunbound.blogspot.com/p/digi-gov.html https://www.uni.lu/fhse-en/research-projects/digi-gov/ Image caption: Google data centre in Eemshaven, Netherlands, 2022. © Karinne Madron