Evan Dowell

Digital infrastructure linkages are ubiquitous and undergird contemporary network societies. I am fascinated with the complex intersections of the technical and social aspects which determine the lives of these digital infrastructures. My research examines the development, construction, and decommissioning of digital infrastructures in Central Asia amid the rising importance of private capital and global finance capital. I am particularly curious about how digital infrastructures’ embeddedness in various social contexts plays a role in its spatial patterns, and how spatial agency in turn influences the intersections of actors, processes, and materials foundational to digital infrastructures’ functioning. Some of my fundamental inquiries include: What are the spatial and territorial patterns that facilitate the emergence of digital infrastructures and what are the dominant social forces that help shape their lives? What are the social and political effects of digital infrastructures? And how do global circulations of capital shape and become shaped by the spatial patterns of digital infrastructures’ constant expansion?

Key to my research is the consideration of digital infrastructures’ role in place-making and the contours of various regional and national political economic environments.

Prior to starting my doctoral research I was an Air Force officer working as an engineer/technical manager of various space systems. I am grateful to have received support for my research from UC Berkeley and the Foreign Language and Area Studies program (FLAS). My research is conducted principally with Professors You-tien Hsing, Sharad Chari, Nicole Starosielski, and Steven Vogel.