Localized Imaginaries, Global Assets: Sociotechnical Imaginaries and the Assetization of Data Centers in Singapore

Key findings from this study

This research indicates that:

• Singapore's data center sector demonstrates active adaptation of standardized global infrastructure imaginaries to local resource constraints rather than adherence to generic models.
• State and industry actors employ discursive practices that reposition data centers as financialized strategic assets, enabling infrastructure expansion in land-scarce environments.
• Assetization processes fundamentally reconfigure what a data center represents, shifting emphasis from technical function toward investment value within digital economies.

Overview

This study examines how state and industry actors in Singapore develop localized sociotechnical imaginaries to legitimize data center expansion within a tropical, land-scarce environment. The research links these imaginaries to assetization processes, demonstrating how global infrastructure standards undergo adaptation and discursive repositioning. Data centers emerge as financialized strategic assets within Singapore's urban digital economy rather than merely standardized technical installations.

Methods and approach

Critical discourse analysis of government policy briefs, industry press releases, and national media sources. The approach situates sociotechnical imaginaries within postcolonial contexts while engaging assetization theory to interpret how infrastructure becomes legible as investable assets.

Results

The research reveals that Singapore adapts global data center standards—typically oriented toward temperate climates, abundant land, and low-cost energy—to address its distinct resource constraints. State and industry actors co-produce localized imaginaries that reframe what constitutes a data center, repositioning these installations as strategic economic assets integral to Singapore's digital economy rather than peripheral infrastructure. Discursive practices within policy and media representations emphasize innovation, strategic value, and financialization, enabling data center proliferation within one of the world's densest urban environments.

Global standardized imaginaries guide most data center development globally, yet Singapore's case demonstrates active contestation and reconfiguration of these norms. The adaptation process involves deliberate discursive positioning that transforms potential constraints—spatial scarcity, tropical climate—into markers of technological sophistication and strategic importance. This repositioning legitimizes continued infrastructure expansion while fundamentally altering how data centers function within both technical and economic registers.

Implications

Understanding data center infrastructure through assetization theory reveals how digital infrastructure becomes embedded in financialized systems and subject to asset logics rather than purely technical rationalities. The postcolonial framing demonstrates that infrastructure imaginaries are neither globally uniform nor locally determined, but actively contested and co-produced through specific power configurations. This analytical approach extends human-computer interaction scholarship beyond technical systems toward the political economy of global digital infrastructure.

The Singapore case indicates that emerging data center trajectories will likely involve continued adaptation of global standards to local contexts, with discursive repositioning as a primary mechanism enabling expansion. Future infrastructure development may increasingly depend on assetization narratives and strategic framings rather than underlying environmental feasibility. These dynamics warrant attention from scholars examining digital infrastructure governance, urban development, and the financialization of essential services.

Scope and limitations

This summary is based on the study abstract and available metadata. It does not include a full analysis of the complete paper, supplementary materials, or underlying datasets unless explicitly stated. Findings should be interpreted in the context of the original publication.