Localized Imaginaries, Global Assets: Sociotechnical Imaginaries and the Assetization of Data Centers in Singapore
This paper makes a strong conceptual contribution by showing that Singapore’s data center growth is legitimized not by fitting inherited Western siting assumptions, but by actively remaking them through state-industry discourse. Its value lies in connecting sociotechnical imaginaries to assetization, postcolonial difference, and labor politics while remaining appropriately explicit about the limits of elite, English-language discourse analysis.
Axes Lens
Rare contribution shape, typical evidence profile. The point here is not a score. It is to show what kind of claim the paper makes, and whether the evidence pattern is unusual or baseline in this 268 -review set.
Contribution shape
- Knowledge form
- descriptive knowledge typical · 92/268
- Novelty type
- theory typical · 15/268
- Abstraction level
- field typical · 41/268
- Generalization target
- field argument typical · 55/268
- Validation mode
- qualitative study typical · 63/268
Evidence profile
- Evidence strength
- strong typical · 158/268
- Claim alignment
- strong typical · 231/268
- Overclaim risk
- low typical · 53/268
Review Summary
This is a persuasive and theoretically ambitious CHI paper that reframes data center infrastructure as something produced not only through engineering and policy, but through discourse that renders infrastructure thinkable, legitimate, and investable. The central move is to show that Singapore is not merely an exception to dominant data center imaginaries centered on cool climates, abundant land, and cheap energy; instead, it is a case where scarcity, density, and tropical conditions are actively reworked into a localized developmental narrative. That argument matters because it shifts HCI attention from whether infrastructure objectively “fits” a place to how states and industries narrate fit, value, and inevitability. The paper’s strongest contribution is the articulation of four sociotechnical imaginaries and their connection to assetization: data centers become strategic resources, engines of leadership, sustainability differentiators, and labor-development projects, all of which help constitute them as an asset class rather than merely a technical facility. The methodological basis is appropriate for these claims: a critical discourse analysis over a 99-source corpus drawn from government, industry, and media texts. The authors are also commendably clear about scope. Because the evidence is elite discourse, the paper is best read as an account of legitimating narratives and political-economic framing, not as a full account of public reception or lived impacts. That limitation does not weaken the paper’s core contribution; rather, it clarifies what kind of knowledge the paper offers. Overall, this is a high-value field-level contribution for HCI scholars interested in infrastructure, state power, sustainability rhetoric, and the financialization of digital systems.
What Changed
Canon before
Dominant assumptions in the field hold that data center infrastructure development is naturally aligned with temperate climates, abundant land, and low-cost energy conditions, privileging Western imaginaries where data centers flourish in resource-rich or cooler environments as a baseline for sustainable and viable growth.
Departure from common sense
This paper breaks field common sense by showing that Singapore, a tropical, land-scarce city-state with high ambient heat, humidity, and limited natural energy resources, successfully redefines its constraints as assets, thus challenging the conventional wisdom that data center development requires resource abundance and temperate conditions.
Actual novelty
This work novelly combines critical discourse analysis with sociotechnical imaginaries and assetization theory to reveal how Singapore’s state and industry actors co-produce four distinct sociotechnical imaginaries that reframe data centers as strategic resources, future engines for leadership, sustainable competitive differentiators, and drivers for a high-skilled workforce, thereby constituting data centers as financialized assets in a tropical, resource-scarce postcolonial context. It extends HCI scholarship by linking infrastructural imaginaries to state power, postcolonial theory, and finance studies, providing new conceptual insights into infrastructural legitimacy, financialization, and labor imaginaries in emerging global data center hubs.
Evidence
The evidence is strong and well-aligned with the claims, based on a critical discourse analysis of a 99-source corpus spanning government policy briefs and white papers, industry press releases, and national media coverage. The paper explicitly states its Singapore-specific scope and discusses limitations around elite discourse, English-language sources, and omitted grassroots or non-English perspectives.
“icitly, we contribute the following: (1) We first show how the seemingly universal characteristics, standards, and definitions of data centers and their development become locally adapted and justified in the Singaporean context through four sociotechnical imaginaries.”
actual novelty · 1 Introduction · confidence 0.96
“ In Iceland, the state and the data center industry have embarked on a national campaign to rebrand the country’s seemingly remote, exotic, and cold environment, shaped by its culture history and entrenched imperial imaginaries, into one that is "naturally" suited for the data center industry [64]”
departure from common sense · 1 Introduction · confidence 0.95
“ Furthermore, the focus on elite discourse in unpacking these promotional narratives, both in the narrow focus on English languages sources and the choice of the three types of sources collected, is not to suggest that grassroots perspectives or contestations are absent.”
limitation · 6 Limitations and Future Directions · confidence 0.97
“We base our findings on a critical discourse analysis of a corpus consisting of government policy briefs and white papers, industry press releases, and national media coverage. By critically examining Singapore’s ”
validation scope · 1 Introduction · confidence 0.95
Limits
Method limits
The study relies mainly on English-language elite discourse sources from government, industry, and mainstream media. It excludes non-English discourses and grassroots perspectives, so it cannot capture the full range of contestation or alternative imaginaries in Singapore.
Deployment limits
Findings are grounded in Singapore’s distinctive political economy as a tropical, land-scarce, resource-constrained city-state and global hub. They should not be treated as predictive of broader Southeast Asian trends or directly transferable to other national contexts without caution.
Boundary conditions
The sociotechnical imaginaries and assetization observed depend on Singapore’s specific state capacity, regulatory power, global hub status, and postcolonial positioning. Applicability is therefore bounded by similar infrastructural and geopolitical conditions.
Position in field
This paper occupies a novel interdisciplinary position in HCI bridging infrastructural imaginaries, postcolonial studies, and financialization theory. It advances critical infrastructural scholarship by showing how state-led discourse can reframe data centers as legitimate, investable assets while also opening worker-centered questions about skills and labor hierarchy.