open reading group The Root & Router Society Reading Group
bi- weekly tuesday session 16:00 – 17:00 cest/cet* (once every two weeks)
facilitated by niels@criticalinfralab.net, fieke@criticalinfralab.net, maxigas@criticalinfralab.net
meet up here (just show up, no prior notification is needed): https://uva-live.zoom.us/j/6365963924
take notes here: https://pad.criticalinfralab.net/unz6CPM9SpieqIlkXf-Oq
sign up for the mailinglist here (don’t forget to click the link in the confirmation email):
https://lists.ghserv.net/mailman/listinfo/infrastructure-readinggroup
and a calendar event (add to your Google calendar or download an .ics file)
Books for 2026:
– Extraction: The frontiers of green capitalism by Thea Riofrancos
– Cybernetic Circulation Complex: Big Tech and Planetary Crisis by Nick Dyer-Witheford & Alessandra Mularoni
– The Low-Carbon Contradiction: Energy Transition, Geopolitics, and the Infrastructural State in Cuba by Gustav Cederlöf
– The Deadly Life of Logistics: Mapping Violence in Global Trade by Deborah Cowen
January 6th – Extraction: Prologue + Chapter 1 – Cybernetic Circulation Complex: Preface
January 20th – Extraction: Chapter 2 – Cybernetic Circulation Complex: Chapter 1
February 3rd – Extraction: Chapter 3 – Cybernetic Circulation Complex: Chapter 2
February 17th – Extraction: Chapter 4 – Cybernetic Circulation Complex: Chapter 3
March 3rd – Extraction: Chapter 5 – Cybernetic Circulation Complex: Chapter 4
March 17th – Extraction: Chapter 6 – Cybernetic Circulation Complex: Chapter 5
March 31st – Extraction: Chapter 7 – Cybernetic Circulation Complex: Coda
April 14th – Extraction: Chapter 8 & 9
April 28th – Low-Carbon Contradiction: Introduction – Deadly Life of Logistics: Introduction
May 12th – Low-Carbon Contradiction: Chapter 1 – Deadly Life of Logistics: Chapter 1
May 26th – Low-Carbon Contradiction: Chapter 2 – Deadly Life of Logistics: Chapter 2
June 9th – Low-Carbon Contradiction: Chapter 3 – Deadly Life of Logistics: Chapter 3
June 23rd – Low-Carbon Contradiction: Chapter 4 – Deadly Life of Logistics: Chapter 4
July 7th – Low-Carbon Contradiction: Chapter 5 – Deadly Life of Logistics: Chapter 5
July 21st – Low-Carbon Contradiction: Conclusion – Deadly Life of Logistics: Conclusion
If you want to see what we have read before, check the page of the previous infrastructure reading group, and the environment reading group.
* We use CEST between the last Sunday of March until the last Sunday of October, then we switch back to CET.
keynote The State of the Internet 2026 with Fieke Jansen April 2026
During the State of the Internet, Waag Futurelab takes the annual temperature of the internet. This edition focuses on AI and the limits of our planet. The lecture will be given by Fieke Jansen, co-founder of the Critical Infrastructure Lab.
Generative AI and other AI applications are currently being added to our technology everywhere. From search engines and social media to office software and urban infrastructure: AI is everywhere, whether we like it or not. Our digital landscape is changing significantly, but our physical landscape is perhaps changing even more dramatically. The arrival of large data centres, known as hyperscalers, is putting considerable pressure on our power grid and water supply. Local residents are seeing their energy bills rise and their water supply become less reliable.
This year, we are looking at what lies behind our screens: what impact does the growing appetite for data centres and AI computing power have on our living environment, and what are the consequences for the world outside our screens? The possibilities of AI seem limitless, but our planet’s natural resources are finite.
About Fieke Jansen
This year the keynote lecture will be given by Fieke Jansen, co-principal researcher at the Critical Infrastructure Lab at the University of Amsterdam and co-lead of the Green Screen Coalition. Jansen investigates how the infrastructure of our digital world, data centres and AI influence the environment, raw material use and climate.
About Waag Futurelab
Waag Futurelab is engaged in regenerative technology by developing research and design methods that detach technology from purely extractive models and instead make it restorative and circular. In collaboration with the Critical Infrastructure Lab, Waag investigates how technical systems can be designed in such a way that they not only extract value from natural and social resources, but also give back: think of the use of biomaterials, a focus on repair and extending lifespan, and public values that strengthen local ecosystems and social initiatives. Through practice-oriented research and participatory design processes, Waag brings together knowledge from science, art and citizen initiatives to realise technologies that contribute to long-term regeneration rather than depletion.
https://www.waag.org/en/event/state-internet-2026-fieke-jansen
workshop Statecraft, Sovereignty and Digital Government April 2026
A two-day symposium, 16-17 April, 2026, Goldsmiths, University of London.
Dmitry Kuznetsov and Alex Gekker will present on Russia’s Sovereign AI strategy.
https://www.gold.ac.uk/media-communications/research/statecraft-sovereignty-and-digital-government-
talk - presentation - panel Interlinking sustainability and data management May 2026
Data has become the new gold, and this truism is increasingly holding true. Organisations and society at large are confronted with an ever-growing flood of data — collected, stored, and hoarded as a matter of course. Yet behind the promise of the immaterial “cloud” lies a very material reality, think of data centres straining energy grids and impacting the surrounding communities.
This seminar tackles this interlinkage between data and sustainability and provides avenues for improvement – from a technical and organisational perspective.
Bringing together academic insight and frontline industry experience, this event will explore this most urgent topic. Joining us are:
- Dirk Deridder, CTO of Smals, who will offer his account of navigating these pressures from within a major organisation. Smals is a Belgian ICT organisation delivering digital infrastructure and services to over 300 public institutions in the social security, healthcare, and e-government sectors. In doing so, it operates 4 data centres.
- Fieke Jansen, University of Amsterdam: Dr. Fieke Jansen is co-principal researcher at the critical infrastructure lab, and co-lead of the Green Screen Coalition. Her work investigates how the infrastructure of our digital world, data centres, and AI influence the environment, raw material use, and climate.
- Academic members of the SDM consortium: prof. An Braeken (VUB), prof. Jan Tobias Mühlberg (ULB), prof. Geoffrey Aerts (VUB). They will share their latest insights into how organizations can improve the sustainability of their data management practices.
Audience: The seminar welcomes industry professionals, academics working in related fields, and the wider public interested in the link between data management and sustainability.
Location: Becentral. Upon arrival, register at the main entrance. Event takes place at the FARI auditorium – 4th floor.
Date: 26/05
Time:
· 12:30-13:00 Lunch
· 13:00-15:10 Industry and academic speakers
· 15:10-16:00 Networking drink
This seminar is organised by the SDM (Sufficiency & Data Minimization) consortium, a collaboration between research groups at VUB and ULB. Funded by the Brussels-Capital Region – Innoviris.
Register here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/seminar-interlinking-sustainability-and-data-management-tickets-1985288060030
talk - presentation - panel The True Cost of ICT: Crisis of Abundance June 2026
ICT4S workshop: Ultra-cheap microchips (<$1) are abundant and account for the vast majority of the >400 billion pieces sold per year. Their numbers keep growing as new technology nodes are released and the older ones (from as far back as the 1980s) continue to produce. These microchips do not exist on their own; they are packaged into every possible gadget around us, whether necessary or not. They make everyday objects ‘smart’, but this also increases their obsolescence. From disposable vapes to smart toys, cheap microchips enable the production of billions of new objects that will be discarded very soon. We want to investigate the environmental consequences of not cutting-edge microchips (as in AI and data centres), but of older generations that keep piling up production volume. In this workshop, we will investigate the enormous production cycle and examine its supply chains from an environmental perspective.
Workshop includes Adrian Friday, Fieke Jansen, Gauthier Rousillhe, and Srinjoy Mitra.
