News Archive – YRG Geographies of Digital Infrastructures

29.06.2026 – In June 2026, “The Elgar Companion to the Geopolitics of Digital Sovereignty: Contested Networks, Territories and Self-determination” was published as open access. The volume was edited by Georg Glasze, Amaël Cattaruzza, Finn Dammann and Frédérick Douzet and brings together 26 articles providing a geopolitical context for the geographies of digital sovereignty in a global comparison.
 

29.06.2026 – On 25 June, the Swiss Telecommunication Summit 2026 took place in Bern. At the invitation of the Swiss Telecommunications Association (asut), Dr Finn Dammann joined Dr Myriam Dunn Cavelty (Centre for Security Studies at ETH Zurich) at the Kursaal in Bern to discuss internet infrastructures as factors of power in our world, which is increasingly characterised by geopolitical conflicts and tensions – and the associated questions regarding the shaping of digital sovereignty in Switzerland. A report on the summit can be found in Computerworld (report & photo © Rüdiger R. Sellin).

05.06.2026 – In a new research article in the journal *Digital Geography & Society*, Boris Michel (MLU Halle-Wittenberg) and Finn Dammann examine the rapid development of a cluster of data centres in the Manila metropolitan area and situate it within the increasingly geopolitically contested market for content delivery, AI services and IP interconnection in South-East Asia. The article, entitled “Metro Manila’s digital infrastructure ecosystem. Insights into critical data centre studies in the majority world” has been published as open access here.

08.05.2026 – We have just returned from an exciting visit to the Tech Show at the Frankfurt Exhibition Centre. Companies from all over Germany and the world are showcasing their portfolios here, whilst experts from industry and academia are discussing topics ranging from cloud solutions and quantum computing to data sovereignty in presentations and panel discussions. This year, an emphasis was placed on the development of data centres and the use of AI in the private sector. Issues of sustainability, power supply and cooling stood out in particular, but security concerns such as site security, fire protection and cyber security also played a role for both customers and providers.

We held numerous discussions with industry insiders on the design and management of data centres, the environmental impact of this growing sector, and interconnection with the global Internet. Through the contacts made at the Tech Show, we hope to continue gaining insights into this industry in the future and to track how the trend towards AI and ‘made in Germany’ data centres develops.

05.05.2026 – Doctoral student Maja Warlich from our working group has been selected for the funding program of the Graduate Center of the Bavarian Research Institute for Digital Transformation (bidt). Every year, the bidt supports 25 doctoral students conducting research in the field of digital transformation and facilitates networking and further education in the field of digitization research.

We are very happy for Maja and excited to see what the future holds!

22.04.2026 – From 4 June 2026 to 6 June 2026, the transdisciplinary workshop “New Approaches to Critical Geovisualisation 2026” will take place once again this year at Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design in Halle.

For the third year running, geographers, media scholars and artists will discuss the latest techniques and methods of critical mapping and present current (research) work in the fields of counter-mapping, Platial GIS, place-based GIS and spatial humanities. The workshop is once again organised by Pablo Abend, Anna Unterstab (both from Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design), Boris Michel (University of Halle), Nora Küttel (University of Bremen), Lea Bauer, Francis Harvey (both from IfL) and Finn Dammann (FAU Erlangen-Nuremberg).

We look forward to receiving your registrations by 30 April 2026 via this link. The provisional programme can be found here.

05.03.2026 – The young research group “Geographies of Digital Infrastructures” led by Dr. Finn Dammann is looking for a student assistant to support its research projects starting 01 June 2025. The group’s overarching research project, “Resilience of Digital Infrastructures – Geopolitical Conflicts Around Internet Routing,” is located at the intersection of digital geography, political geography, and computer science. It currently focuses on material digital infrastructures and their spatial impacts in the western Mediterranean region. To support the individual research projects, the junior research group is seeking a motivated student assistant with an interest in this research field as well as in research-related tasks.

All information is available at:
https://www.geographie.nat.fau.de/files/2026/03/260305_Ausschreibung_SHK_NG_DigInfra_Dammann.pdf

Please send your informal application, including a short CV and a brief motivation letter, by email no later than 22 March 2026 to:
geographie-ag-gdi@fau.de.

20.01.2026 – For this year’s Royal Geographical Society conference in London, Finn Dammann and Boris Michel (University of Halle) are organising a joint session on ‘Uneven and Contested Geographies of Data Centres’. As indispensable infrastructure for life in our increasingly data-driven world and for the organisation of digital capitalism, data centres raise a multitude of geographical questions and problems. These range from the conflictual embedding of data centres in local environments to their role in larger infrastructure constellations, urban environments and geopolitical issues such as digital sovereignty, digital colonialism and data localisation. The session will focus on conceptual and empirical contributions to critical data centre studies and research on the geography of digital infrastructures.

Abstracts (250 words) with a short bio (50 words) can be sent to boris.michel@geo.uni-halle.de & finn.dammann@fau.de until 16 February 2026.

Click here for the complete CfP.

10.11.2025 – At the beginning of November, the annual meeting of the Working Group on Digital Geography took place in Frankfurt am Main. Under the theme “Digital geographies of valuation: platforms, technologies, narratives,” our young research group contributed two presentations in the session on Politics of digital infrastructures. As the final conference of the year, the meeting was a great opportunity to gain new inspiration for our research project. We would like to express our sincere thanks to the organizers.

10.11.2025 – At the beginning of November, the Federal Ministry for Technology and Space invited participants to this year’s status conference of the funding line “Early-Career Research Groups in Scientific and Technical Peace and Conflict Research with a Focus on Arms Control.” Through poster presentations, the young research groups were able to showcase their respective projects and present initial interim results. The exchange across various disciplines gave us the opportunity to present and discuss our project with a transdisciplinary audience for the first time. Many thanks to the DLR project managers and the BMFTR for the productive exchange.

20.10.2025 – On November 17, we will present our new book „The Elgar Companion to the Geopolitics of Digital Sovereignty“ together with colleagues from the FAU and the Parisian research group „Geopolitics of the Datasphere“ in the Orangerie in Erlangen. The volume will be published in the spring of 2026 by Georg Glasze, Amael Cattaruzza, Finn Dammann and Frederick Douzet. For further infos, see the website and the flyer.

03.09.2025 – Three days full of exiting presentations and new inspirations are now behind us.

On day one Finn Dammann (FAU Erlangen-Nuremberg) and Boris Michel (MLU Halle-Wittenberg) provided insights into their research on “Geographies of Interconnection Hubs and their geopolitical embeddings.” In their presentation, they demonstrated the multi-scalarity of Internet structures and their historical embedding in diverse geopolitical contexts of transport structures using material geographies of interconnection hubs in Southern Europe and the Philippines.

Our poster on the topic “Interconnection Hubs, Content Delivery Networks and Emerging AI Infrastructures. Insights into the material geographies of “digital ecosystems” in the Western Mediterranean” was also given a prominent place at the conference venue and facilitated a lively exchange on the topic of digital geographies.

In summary, we are delighted with the exciting discussions we had, the great contacts we made, and the interesting input we were able to take away from the RGS!

12.08.2025 – In July 2025, the ‚Handbook of Mobile Methods in Social Spatial Research‘ (edited by Matthias Naumann & Anke Strüver) was published with a contribution by Finn Dammann (together with Pablo Abend and Boris Michel) with the title ‚Critical Infrastructure Walks in Dataficated Worlds‘. The article shows the extent to which critical infrastructure walks can serve as a method for exploring and visualising material geographies and what new perspectives can develop from making visible the necessary work of maintaining digital infrastructures or even historical instability.

The handbook is available here.

19.-20.06.2025 – For the annual conference of the RGS Working Group on Digital Geography, Finn Dammann took the lead in organizing the panel on “Geopolitics of Digital Sovereignty in Global Comparison.” Together with colleagues from the Paris research center GEODE (Geopolitics of the Datasphere), we presented contributions from the new volume The Elgar Companion to the Geopolitics of Digital Sovereignty: Contested Networks, Territories and Self-Determination (to be published in summer 2025, edited by Georg Glasze, Amaël Cattaruzza, Frédérick Douzet & Finn Dammann) and offered a preview of future research areas in the rapidly expanding field of LEO satellite internet.

See here for more information about the panel.

26.05.2025 – The Political Geography Working Group met in Freiburg from May 22 to 24, 2025, for its annual conference on this year’s theme, “Political Geographies in Uncertain Times.” In the session on the power effects of materialities, technologies, and more-than-human dynamics, we presented initial results from our research project “Interconnection Hubs, Content Delivery Networks, and Emerging AI Infrastructures – Insights into the Material Geographies of Digital Colonialism in the Western Mediterranean.” The conference provided us with many new impulses for our research field, and we would like to warmly thank the organizers for the productive exchange.

19.05.2025 – How does Google Maps influence our everyday perceptions and practices in urban spaces – and what alternative maps and geoservices are available? In an interview with the Abendzeitung München, Finn Dammann was asked about the significance of Google Maps in Bavarian cities, the challenges of digital sovereignty over one’s own (geo)data, and alternative mapping projects.

See here for the online article.

12.05.2025 – From May 8 to 10, this year’s interdisciplinary workshop between geographical research and research-based design took place in Halle at the MLU Institute of Geography and the Halle University of Art and Design. Together with around 80 colleagues and students from geography, GIScience, design, media studies, and art, we discussed recent approaches to the critical mapping of social realities and infrastructures – and tested new techniques and methods in hands-on workshops. The now third workshop on critical geovisualization was organized by Pablo Abend and Anna Unterstab (both Halle University of Art and Design, Burg Giebichenstein), Boris Michel and Nora Küttel (both University of Halle), Lea Bauer (University of Leipzig), Francis Harvey (IfL), and Finn Dammann.

05.05.2025 – Josephine Brandenburg, a doctoral student in our working group, has been selected for the funding program of the Graduate Center of the @Bavarian Research Institute for Digital Transformation (bidt). Every year, the bidt supports 25 doctoral students conducting research in the field of digital transformation and facilitates networking and further education in the field of digitization research.

We are very happy for Josephine and are excited to see what the future holds!