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

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  • Cumbo, Bronwyn

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Cumbo, Bronwyn, 2026. "Opportunities for Participatory Design in Shaping Australia’s Data Centre Futures," SocArXiv nzu6e_v1, Center for Open Science.
    • Handle: RePEc:osf:socarx:nzu6e_v1
    DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/nzu6e_v1
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Susan Leigh Star & Karen Ruhleder, 1996. "Steps Toward an Ecology of Infrastructure: Design and Access for Large Information Spaces," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 7(1), pages 111-134, March.
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