How do cables and data centers think? This book investigates how information infrastructures enact particular forms of knowledge. It juxtaposes the pervasive logics of speed efficiency and resilience with more communal and ecological ways of thinking and being turning technical “solutions” back into open questions about what society wants and what infrastructures should do. Moving from data centers in Hong Kong to undersea cables in Singapore and server clusters in China Munn combines rich empirical material with insights drawn from media and cultural studies sociology and philosophy. This critical analysis stresses that infrastructures are not just technical but deeply epistemological privileging some actions and actors while sidelining others. This innovative exploration of the values and visions at the heart of our technologies will interest students scholars and researchers in the areas of communication studies digital media technology studies sociology philosophy of technology information studies and geography. |Countering the Cloud Thinking With and Against Data Infrastructures | Communication Studies
