The economic and socialcultural effects of developing cyber-infrastructure for global information storage in Iceland, 2014

The aim of this project was to map the impacts of information infrastructures (for example, data centers, internet exchanges, and fiber-optic cables). Though such networks are often described as immediate and immaterial, this research proposed that data transfer and storage actually have significant social, political, and ecological effects. Such impacts were investigated through fourteen months of ethnographic research (interviews and participant observation) in Reykjavík and Reykjanes, Iceland. A current hot spot for data center siting, doing research in Iceland offered an opportunity to study infrastructural development in motion, and investigate how it was promoted and perceived. Findings from this project are compiled in the dissertation: "Compromising Connections: Icelandic Information Infrastructure and the Making of Marginality"本项目旨在梳理信息基础设施所产生的各类影响，涵盖数据中心、互联网交换点与光纤光缆等典型载体。尽管此类网络常被描述为即时且非物质性的，但本研究指出，数据传输与存储实则会带来显著的社会、政治与生态效应。本研究通过在冰岛雷克雅未克（Reykjavík）与雷克雅内斯（Reykjanes）开展的14个月民族志研究——包含访谈与参与式观察——对上述影响展开了考察。冰岛作为当前数据中心选址的热门区域，在此开展研究得以直面处于动态发展进程中的基础设施建设，并探究其推广路径与社会认知状况。本项目的研究成果已汇编于学位论文《妥协的联结：冰岛信息基础设施与边缘性的塑造》中。