Territorialising the cloud or clouding the territory? Volumetric vulnerabilities and the militarised conjunctures of Singapore's smart city-state

This article explores how the volumetric characteristics of cloud computing can create new expressions of territoriality, which in turn can reveal new axes of vulnerability and threat. Whilst recent work in political geography has sought to “locate” the cloud through analyses of data centre geograph...

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Main Authors: WOODS, Orlando, BUNNELL, Tim, KONG, Lily
Format: text
Language:English
Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2024
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Online Access:https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/cis_research/215
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spelling sg-smu-ink.cis_research-12142024-09-26T07:06:03Z Territorialising the cloud or clouding the territory? Volumetric vulnerabilities and the militarised conjunctures of Singapore's smart city-state WOODS, Orlando BUNNELL, Tim KONG, Lily This article explores how the volumetric characteristics of cloud computing can create new expressions of territoriality, which in turn can reveal new axes of vulnerability and threat. Whilst recent work in political geography has sought to “locate” the cloud through analyses of data centre geographies and data-driven processes of smart urbanism, we look beyond the material plane and consider the amorphous territorialities of voluminous data instead. As much as these data are acted on by the legal-regulatory mechanics of the state in a bid to territorialise them, so too do these data volumes serve to cloud, and thus obscure, territory. Processes of territorialising and clouding exist in a state of dialectical tension with each other, and reveal the volumetric vulnerabilities of cloud computing. We validate these theoretical claims through an analysis of in-depth interviews with senior stakeholders in Singapore's Smart Nation initiative. In Singapore, defending the city is equivalent to defending the nation, which causes the military to play an outsized role in securing the city-state. We consider how the attack surface of the city becomes a more voluminous construct with cloud computing, how strategies of geofencing attempt to secure the cloud, and how these processes reveal the increasingly militarised conjunctures of everyday life. Overall, these insights reveal a need for political geography to continually evolve its theoretical premises in line with the rapid digitalisation of the world. 2024-09-23T07:00:00Z text https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/cis_research/215 info:doi/10.1016/j.polgeo.2024.103211 Research Collection College of Integrative Studies eng Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University Cloud computing Territory Data volumes Attack surfaces Datastructures Military Singapore Geography Urban Studies
institution Singapore Management University
building SMU Libraries
continent Asia
country Singapore
Singapore
content_provider SMU Libraries
collection InK@SMU
language English
topic Cloud computing
Territory
Data volumes
Attack surfaces
Datastructures
Military
Singapore
Geography
Urban Studies
spellingShingle Cloud computing
Territory
Data volumes
Attack surfaces
Datastructures
Military
Singapore
Geography
Urban Studies
WOODS, Orlando
BUNNELL, Tim
KONG, Lily
Territorialising the cloud or clouding the territory? Volumetric vulnerabilities and the militarised conjunctures of Singapore's smart city-state
description This article explores how the volumetric characteristics of cloud computing can create new expressions of territoriality, which in turn can reveal new axes of vulnerability and threat. Whilst recent work in political geography has sought to “locate” the cloud through analyses of data centre geographies and data-driven processes of smart urbanism, we look beyond the material plane and consider the amorphous territorialities of voluminous data instead. As much as these data are acted on by the legal-regulatory mechanics of the state in a bid to territorialise them, so too do these data volumes serve to cloud, and thus obscure, territory. Processes of territorialising and clouding exist in a state of dialectical tension with each other, and reveal the volumetric vulnerabilities of cloud computing. We validate these theoretical claims through an analysis of in-depth interviews with senior stakeholders in Singapore's Smart Nation initiative. In Singapore, defending the city is equivalent to defending the nation, which causes the military to play an outsized role in securing the city-state. We consider how the attack surface of the city becomes a more voluminous construct with cloud computing, how strategies of geofencing attempt to secure the cloud, and how these processes reveal the increasingly militarised conjunctures of everyday life. Overall, these insights reveal a need for political geography to continually evolve its theoretical premises in line with the rapid digitalisation of the world.
format text
author WOODS, Orlando
BUNNELL, Tim
KONG, Lily
author_facet WOODS, Orlando
BUNNELL, Tim
KONG, Lily
author_sort WOODS, Orlando
title Territorialising the cloud or clouding the territory? Volumetric vulnerabilities and the militarised conjunctures of Singapore's smart city-state
title_short Territorialising the cloud or clouding the territory? Volumetric vulnerabilities and the militarised conjunctures of Singapore's smart city-state
title_full Territorialising the cloud or clouding the territory? Volumetric vulnerabilities and the militarised conjunctures of Singapore's smart city-state
title_fullStr Territorialising the cloud or clouding the territory? Volumetric vulnerabilities and the militarised conjunctures of Singapore's smart city-state
title_full_unstemmed Territorialising the cloud or clouding the territory? Volumetric vulnerabilities and the militarised conjunctures of Singapore's smart city-state
title_sort territorialising the cloud or clouding the territory? volumetric vulnerabilities and the militarised conjunctures of singapore's smart city-state
publisher Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University
publishDate 2024
url https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/cis_research/215
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