During this lecture, Rianne Riemens, postdoc within Governing the Digital Society, will present the main results of her PhD research “Platform Earth: Ecomodernism in Tech-on-Climate Discourse”. The event and discussion will be moderated by Judith Keilbach.
Platform Earth
Platform Earth explores how since the 2010s “Silicon Valley” has been reinventing itself as a green economy. Amidst growing concerns about climate change and in response to critiques on their environmental impact, platform companies such as Apple and Microsoft have developed elaborate ways to legitimize their operations. Through these activities, ranging from corporate communication to spacefaring plans, prominent companies and figures construct new narratives about the relation between technology and “nature”.
Together, they forward the myth of “Platform Earth”: the fantasy that Silicon Valley's platform ecosystem is good for the planet and will prove essential for “solving” the climate crisis.
By discussing a range of examples, such as commercials and webpages, the presentation explains the main visual and textual strategies actors use to legitimize their operations. This analysis offers a cultural perspective on Silicon Valley as a mythmaking entity, uncovering the ideological underpinnings of these discourses, including its gendered and imperialist tendencies.
The presentation also addresses how Big Tech deals with its growing environmental impact due to AI and how it reassesses its corporate responsibility efforts in light of the Trump administration. What climate futures are being imagined and materialized, or the opposite, obscured?
- Start date and time
- End date and time
- Location
- Location changed to: Janskerkhof 13, room 0.06 (Stijlkamer)
- Entrance fee
- Free
- Registration