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

As data infrastructures expand globally, the environmental and spatial imaginaries guiding data center development have become standardized, privileging temperate climates, abundant land, and low-cost energy. Singapore presents a paradox: a tropical, land-scarce city-state that nonetheless ranks among the densest data center hubs in the world. This paper examines how state and industry actors co-produce and contest localized sociotechnical imaginaries to legitimize this growth and, in the process, reconfigure what a “data center” is. Using a critical discourse analysis of government policy briefs, industry press releases, and national media, we show how global standards are adapted to Singapore’s resource constraints and how discursive practices position data centers as strategic, investable assets within its urban digital economy. By situating sociotechnical imaginaries in a postcolonial context and linking them to assetization theory, this study advances HCI understandings of data center infrastructure as financialized assets, offering insight into emerging trajectories of global digital infrastructure.