DGEO is proud to announce that Karinne Madron (supervisor, Constance Carr) successfully defended her dissertation Monday September 7. Her dissertation entitled, "Global Clouds and Local Storms: A critical analysis of data centre development dispositifs,” addresses a timely and highly relevant topic in geography. Data centres invoke complex ecological, social, economic and political challenges, while spatial research on their development and governance remains limited. A significant contribution of her work is the development and application of Foucault's concept of the ‘dispositif’ to study the local politics of global technological development showing how actors, discourses and practices work together to shape data centre development. The dispositif shows that data centre development is shaped by power relations relying on processes of depoliticisation, practices of secrecy and opacity, and carefully crafted discourses and discursive alignments, highlighting the challenges posed to spatial planning in particular by the dominant positions of global digital corporations. Her thesis therefore addressed an existing research gap and made an original contribution to current debates in geography, urban planning and practice.
Chaired by Professor Caruso, her work generated interest and a lively discussion across the examining committee that included Professors Markus Hesse, Andrew Karvonen, Antje Matern, and her supervisor Dr. Constance Carr.
Congratulations Dr. Madron!
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