Land rights and data infrastructure: Legal frameworks enabling energy monopolies to prioritize tech capital
Original framing: “Can a power company take your land to support a data center? It depends” — The Conversation - Global
Indigenous communities have long resisted land expropriation through legal and spiritual means, emphasizing stewardship over ownership. Their knowledge systems offer alternative models of land use that prioritize sustainability and collective well-being over profit-driven infrastructure.
The legal and economic structures enabling data center expansion are deeply intertwined with historical patterns of land expropriation and corporate power.
Indigenous knowledge and cross-cultural perspectives reveal the limitations of Western legal frameworks, while scientific and environmental data highlight the urgent need for sustainable alternatives. By integrating community land trusts, legal reform, and Indigenous stewardship models, we can create a more just and equitable infrastructure system. This synthesis demands a reimagining of public good, where land is not a commodity but a shared resource.