From the Bog to the Cloud - by Patrick Bresnihan & Patrick Brodie

Book Synopsis

The green, digital transition is underway. But what does this transition look like when dictated by the energy and resource demands of monopoly tech? How has this situation come to be? And where is it being resisted?

This provocative book uncovers the hidden intersections of land, resource extraction and climate policy in the transition to "greener" and "smarter" economies. Challenging eco-modern and techno-solutionist approaches, the book links narratives of sustainability with colonial histories and uneven development, arguing that tech-driven transitions replicate exploitative patterns of imperial capitalism. Using Ireland as a focal point, the authors show how the history and depth of the country's postcolonial dependency on multinational investment, especially US technology companies, comes into friction with disparate land-based struggles.

Thinking with these movements, the book offers a critique of dependent models of development and proposes an anti-imperialist approach to environmental politics.

Review Quotes

'With careful attention to both local and planetary scales, Bresnihan and Brodie take us on a meticulously researched, elegantly theorized journey that challenges dominant infrastructural narratives of progress as they congeal in the promises of a jointly articulated green, digital transition in Ireland and beyond. Historicizing Ireland's position as a colonial laboratory on the world-historical stage, they expose how cycles of dispossession repeat in the transition from a "spud" economy into a "chip" one. Not content with only telling the story of how such uneven inheritances condition the present, they simultaneously map the contours of local resistance to this dispossession, keeping their personal and political stakes in this resistance refreshingly explicit. This is a stellar achievement of politically grounded scholarship in environmental media studies and essential reading for anyone concerned with the intensifying influence and impact of Big Tech on land and life.' Jordan Kinder, Wilfrid Laurier University and author of Petroturfing: Refining Canadian Oil through Social Media

'In this important book, Bresnihan and Brodie explore the problems faced by Ireland (and, indeed, by the planet) if we continue to let transnational capital and their friends in powerful nation states solve the environmental problems that they have been so central in creating. The authors argue that a different form of development is possible, but only through the implementation of democratic principles and widespread community participation in policies around infrastructure and extraction. In an age where a re-energized US imperialism is targeting the mineral resources of small and large countries around the globe, their warnings are essential.' Denis O'Hearn, University of Texas and author of The Atlantic Economy: Britain, the US and Ireland

'This seminal publication situates what the authors characterise as Ireland's 'postcolonial ecological regime' within its national and transnational contexts. They problematise Irish colonial history and partition in this context - alongside warning of the anti-partitionist credentials of some environmental abusers. The analysis offers a stark warning of the consequences of key environmental justice struggles being lost. But it also invokes an inspiring 'better nation' vision of the Irish republic should they be won. The book is a key tool in the struggle for environmental justice framed by a vision of a better, fairer Ireland in a better, fairer world.' Robbie McVeigh, coauthor of "Anois ar theacht an tSamhraidh" Ireland, Colonialism, and the Unfinished Revolution

'An essential guide to the political ecology of big tech on the ground and in the state. As data centres proliferate, this book's insights are essential to strategizing new ways through the contradictions of green growth and (post)colonial development.' Anne Pasek, Trent University and co-author of Digital Energetics

'A timely and essential investigation of the deep economic and social power relations which route themselves through the Irish state. Essential reading for understanding the command of transnational capital in Ireland.' Conor McCabe, Queens University Belfast and author of Sins of the Father

'Timely, academically rigorous and politically incisive, this book reveals how the thrum of Ireland's data centres is the sound of neo-colonialism and global imperialism in action. Should be read and understood as a clarion call for an anti-colonial and anti-imperialist Ireland.' Kai Heron, Lancaster University and coauthor of Radical Abundance: How to Win a Green Democratic Future

'A remarkable intervention that traces the arc of Ireland's abiding role as a 'laboratory, ' from the era of direct colonialism to today's monopoly tech capitalism. Bringing Irish political economy into direct conversation with theories of dependency and imperialism, this stimulating book refreshes debates on internationalism, eco-socialism and democratic planning in the 21st century.' Thea Riofrancos, Providence College and author of Extraction: The Frontiers of Green Capitalism

About the Author

Patrick Bresnihan is Associate Professor in the Department of Geography at Maynooth University.

Patrick Brodie is Assistant Professor and Ad Astra Fellow in the School of Information and Communication Studies at University College Dublin.