Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: This article discusses frictions related to a datacentre enterprise in a municipality in northern Sweden. These frictions were related to the eco-modernist underpinnings of the enterprise and at the same time contributed to shaping eco-modernism as a concept. The article builds on critical datacentre studies, critiques of eco-modernism and the twin transition, and the concept of friction. The empirical context is ongoing plans for a ‘green’ industrial datacentre enterprise in Östersund, a municipality in northern Sweden, planned to host servers for AI. Two major frictions were found: one concerning the datacentre company and how it negotiated its sustainability profile knowing that its business still required considerable material resources, and the other concerning the resistance that the initiative met from actors in Östersund. I argue that even though the enterprise was framed in eco-modernist terms, the frictions contributed to shaping the universal of eco-modernism in a way that shifted focus from ecological to social sustainability and to discursive legitimisation of sustainability efforts. However, this did not make the business any less resource intensive.
Author: Johanna Sefyrin
Institution: Linköping University
Language: English
Topic: Green IT and Sustainability
Subfield: Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W4417262985