Opportunities for Participatory Design in Shaping Australia’s Data Centre Futures

Bronwyn Cumbo

No nzu6e_v1, SocArXiv from Center for Open Science

Abstract: This paper examines how Participatory Design (PD) can be scaled to address ‘vertical inequities’ emerging between industry and government actors, and local communities and environments through Australia’s expanding data centre industry. Drawing on document analysis, and interviews with experts and community members in Sydney, the study identifies four disparities between industry and government imaginaries for Australia - a regional data centre hub, resilient and sovereign digital futures, economic expansion, and capitalising on ‘temporary’ investment opportunities - and the lived, material realities of communities living alongside data centre developments. Building on these findings, the paper contributes to discussions on scaling PD by exploring how PD can attend to vertical inequities by: (i) building critical data centre literacy; (ii) fostering transparency in sustainability governance; and (iii) broadening dominant visions of data centre futures to include community aspirations. Together, these interventions highlight PD’s potential to cultivate more inclusive and sustainable data centre futures.

Date: 2026-02-04
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:osf:socarx:nzu6e_v1

DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/nzu6e_v1

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