Where Cloud is Ground offers an ethnography of the international data storage industry, and an inquiry into the relationship between data and place. Based in Iceland, which is fast becoming a hot spot for data centers—facilities where large quantities of data is processed and stored—the book traces the fraught work of siting data’s material manifestations in relation to landforms and earth processes, local politics, national narratives, and still-open questions of spatial justice and sovereignty. Doing so, it unsettles techno-utopian ideals of connectivity and offers a window into what it means to live with our data, in a place where more and more data now lives.
By:
Alix Johnson Imprint: University of California Press Country of Publication: United States Volume: 11 Dimensions:
Height: 229mm,
Width: 152mm,
Spine: 18mm
Weight: 318g ISBN:9780520396364 ISBN 10: 0520396367 Series:Atelier: Ethnographic Inquiry in the Twenty-First Century Pages: 228 Publication Date:22 December 2023 Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Undergraduate
Format:Paperback Publisher's Status: Active
Contents List of Figures Acknowledgments Note on Language and Naming Introduction: Putting Data in Its Place PART I ARTICUTION 1. A Natural Fit 2. The Switzerland of Bits PART II ANCHORING 3. Something from Nothing 4. Data Centers, Data Peripheries PART III EXCESS 5. Inside Out Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index
Alix Johnson is Assistant Professor of International Studies at Macalester College.