Paško Bilić, Emina Bužinkić, Nikolina Rajković, Jaka Primorac and Toni Prug, researchers on the Croatian Science Foundation-funded project Digital Data, Infrastructures and Development (DEVELOPER) [HRZZ IP-2022-10-2780], have prepared a report entitled Digital Data and Infrastructure in the Private and Public Sectors – Final Report on the Interviews Conducted.
The new DEVELOPER project report is based on eighty-five interviews examining experiences, governance, and future socio-economic and technological expectations. The interviews were conducted with a diverse range of social actors involved in the socio-technical aspects of digital infrastructure and the provision of digital services in public and private sector.
The analysis of the interviews provides an in-depth insight into how data centres, digital systems, and infrastructures have been developed and used in Croatia. The findings show that behind technical systems lie complex social relations between the state, markets, labour, regulation, and users – from the centralisation of public digital systems and the challenges it entails, to the growing energy demands of data centres and the transformations driven by artificial intelligence. The report approaches digital infrastructure as a social process in which technological possibilities, power relations, and socio-economic effects are shaped simultaneously.
