Article begins<\/h2>\n
As the United States celebrates the\u00a0250th anniversary of its independence<\/a>, members of the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of the government are rewriting and weaponizing history, narrowing the definition of who and what counts as American. Amid the celebrations, our team completed two years of fieldwork in Pennsylvania exploring the myths and realities of data center investment and expansion in one of the\u00a0foundational\u00a0states\u00a0of the American project<\/a>. This mythic narrative\u2014shared by companies and media outlets alike\u2014attempts to sell a single vision of a future where data centers represent the latest in a long lineage of industrial development in Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCredit: <\/span> \t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCelebratory banner of America\u2019s 250th independence anniversary in Carbon County, Pennsylvania.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Data centers are facilities where data is processed or stored, where computer power is redistributed, where \u201cthe cloud<\/a> [also known as the internet] touches the ground.\u201d A data center signals a\u00a0centralization of information processing and distribution<\/a>, especially as it houses the cloud and computing technologies that rely on its infrastructure.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCredit: <\/span> \t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tA data center construction site just outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Pennsylvania\u2019s forested landscape is crossed by rivers and railroads, and dotted by coal mines, power lines, and hulking industrial ruins from the steel-making era. Today, some lawmakers and private investors\u00a0see the state\u00a0<\/a>as a national hub for data center and AI infrastructure<\/a>. This aligns with federal initiatives such as the Trump administration\u2019s\u00a0AI Action Plan<\/a>, which encourages state legislation to accelerate AI infrastructure and energy development.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCredit: <\/span> \t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe former Bethlehem Steel stacks, in Bethlehem, PA.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n In our fieldwork, we observed multiple spatial and temporal layers across rural and late-industrial areas of Pennsylvania as the state confronts yet another sociopolitical and economic transformation, now pushed by Big Tech. What is the shape of this new American myth? What\u2019s the role of industry in this new future? Is artificial intelligence investment a return to blue-collar work and an age of prosperity\u2014a promise sold by politicians and hoped for by disillusioned communities<\/a>\u00a0who have borne the brunt of rapid deindustrialization?<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCredit: <\/span> \t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tContrasting views. Left: Politicians and industrialists promote AI and data centers in PA. Right: Community members protest their presence in their neighborhoods.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n On one hand, Pennsylvania is\u00a0being framed as an \u201cAI-ready\u201d state<\/a>, primed to serve as a national hub for data center and AI infrastructure development given its\u00a0energy and natural resources<\/a>: the state is the second-largest natural gas and nuclear producer, third in coal production in the US, and possesses a large water supply. On the other hand, because of the state\u2019s rich industrial history, Pennsylvanians are familiar with boom-and-bust cycles, and especially in areas such as\u00a0Homer City<\/a>, residents are not buying the promises of the data center industry.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCredit: <\/span> \t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNuclear plant and dried cornfield in Archbald, PA, one of the sites proposed for a future AWS data center.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCredit: <\/span> \t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAn electric hydropower station on the Susquehanna River.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Our images embrace this complexity. They showcase how both landscape and people have survived decades of resource and labor extraction, while also documenting the growing opposition to big tech and data centers on the ground. They display an inflection point in the American myth at a time when distrust in government has become pervasive among Pennsylvania residents.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCredit: <\/span> \t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tA researcher photographing another researcher \u2013 behind the scenes of a collaborative ethnographic project.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n As anthropologists working in a team, we observed together, co-wrote field notes, and\u00a0are co-authoring a final report<\/a>. The myth of the\u00a0lone anthropologist<\/a>\u00a0has dominated disciplinary training in the field for decades, yet collaborative ethnography calls its principles and practices into question. In other words, with this project, we also question\u00a0ethnographic authority<\/a>, acknowledging that anthropologists rarely work alone.\u00a0<\/p>\n Fieldwork has always been a delicate subject for anthropologists. It is often described as a \u201crite of passage<\/a>\u201d associated with a masculine figure \u201cheroically roughing it in a faraway \u2018field\u2019 site in which he must test his own physical limits in a challenging environment<\/a>.\u201d Doing ethnographic fieldwork beyond traditional methods has allowed us to part ways with the\u00a0\u201cdefault fieldworker<\/a>,\u201d who is always historically situated, classed, gendered, and racialized.<\/p>\n As we study a pivotal moment in American history, our approach also prompts us to reckon with the stories we tell about our own discipline, who gets to practice it, and how. Our images reflect this process of reckoning.<\/p>\n Joshua Babcock is the section contributing editor for the General Anthropology Division.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Article begins As the United States celebrates the\u00a0250th anniversary of its independence, members of the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of the government are rewriting and weaponizing history, narrowing the definition of who and what counts as American. Amid the celebrations, our team completed two years of fieldwork in Pennsylvania exploring the myths and realities […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7069908,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11767],"tags":[11165,2708,3735,13091,14231,230922,11603,72988,12671,20872,230923],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-7069907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-anthropology","tag-ai","tag-america","tag-anthropology","tag-centers","tag-challenging","tag-collaborative-ethnography","tag-data","tag-data-centers","tag-myths","tag-pennsylvania","tag-usa250"],"yoast_head":"\n
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