In this session, we welcome a lecture from Devika Narayan (University of Bristol), a leading scholar in the social study of cloud computing, followed by a debate with Seda Gürses (TU Delft) and Miriyam Aouragh (University of Westminster, University of Oxford). 

Narayan’s talk examines how the computer industry morphed into ‘tech’. Tech firms today do not operate within the strict confines of a ‘tech industry’ but hold enormous influence over a range of other industries. What was once a relatively contained computer industry has evolved into something far more expansive and pervasive. The machine and the machine-making industry have been unbounded. To understand how, why, and to what effect this has unfolded, Narayan combines a sociotechnical approach with ‘organisational political economy’, arguing that the computer over several decades has been decomposed, virtualised, and rendered extremely scalable. The talk ends with a reflection on the powerful consequences of such scalability and the broader capitalist logics within which it is embedded.  

The Cloud is a Factory series invites speakers from different disciplines to explore the nature of these computational infrastructures, how they came into being, and consider other possible futures. This talk is part of the AlgoSoc Speaker Series.