Justin Kollar
Biographic Data
| ID | 1521996 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Justin Kollar |
| GIVEN NAMES | Justin |
| FAMILY NAME | Kollar |
| SIGNATURE | KOLLAR J |
| AFFILIATIONS | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-2083-5964 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 9 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 4 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 9 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Grounding the cloud: Urbanism in the shadow of data , by Ali Fard: Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press, 2026
Cloud computing has left us with a persistent cognitive impasse, as more of the world is encountered through digital interfaces that smooth partial representations into seemingly seamless systems w...
The fossil-AI nexus: Petrostate capitalism, computing power, and the production of powered land
The so-called AI boom is part of an infrastructure-led industrial strategy, converting speculative computing demand into bankable fossil generation, transmission expansion, and water- and land-intensive industrial sites. This article bridges digital infrastructure studies and the new state capitalism literature by theorising compute as a socially produced resource whose availability depends on territorial governance. I argue that the buildout is …
Governing the Cloud: Infrastructural Statecraft and the Political Ecology of Digital Expansion in Oregon
Oregon's wave of data center and semiconductor projects shows how cloud capitalism reorganizes resource systems and territorial governance. Examining Amazon, Google, and Intel, the article traces how fiscal incentives, utility programs, and land‐use instruments are recalibrated to secure hyperscale loads. Through a political‐ecological lens, it shows governance shifting from public deliberation to contractual and executive venues, including PPAs,…
Planning Under Preemption: State Power and Local Authority in the AI Data Center Era
Fallowing the fields, feeding the fabs: Territorial restructuring and the political-industrial ecology of high-tech Taiwan
The global expansion of digital infrastructure depends not only on technological innovation but also on the transformation of land, water, and governance systems. Taiwan's semiconductor boom—driven by worldwide demand for AI chips—has transformed the island's resource governance and territorial planning amid mounting climate stress and industrial urgency. While recent work in urban political ecology and infrastructure studies have analyzed the un…
Geopolitical ecologies of cloud capitalism: Territorial restructuring and the making of national computing power in the U.S. and China
As computing power becomes central to geopolitical rivalry, cloud infrastructure is increasingly framed as critical to national security, economic resilience and technological sovereignty. Current debates often focus on global competition – especially between the U.S. and China – highlighting strategic investments, export controls and infrastructure diplomacy abroad. Yet far less attention has been paid to the domestic territorial transformations…
Techno-statecraft and industrial strategy: Semiconductor development in Arizona
The resurgence of U.S. industrial strategy discourse is not a centralised return of the state but a territorially fragmented form of techno-statecraft. This article analyzes Arizona's semiconductor expansion as a case in which subnational actors – agencies, utilities, universities, and developers – mobilise infrastructure, land-use policy, and regulatory coordination to attract global capital. Rather than a coherent national plan, Arizona's strat…
Extended state infrastructure power in an age of networked competition: The cases of Thailand and Taiwan
Scholars have highlighted the emergence of infrastructure as a key domain in the struggle over network centrality in what some call the 'Second Cold War' between the U.S. and China. We qualify this 'infrastructural turn' by drawing attention to the contingent nature of state infrastructural power as depending on key domestic firms that often serve as intermediaries between domestic infrastructure and global supply chains or international partners…
Pedestrian-oriented development in Beirut: A framework for estimating urban design impacts on pedestrian flows through modeling, participatory design, and scenario analysis
As municipalities are setting ambitious targets to increase non-motorized transportation mode shares, analytic frameworks for examining how such targets will be met become increasingly important. In this article, we update the Urban Network Analysis pedestrian modeling framework designed to link land use and urban development changes with pedestrian mobility outcomes by introducing new methods for capturing the effects of street properties on ped…
Geopolitical ecologies of cloud capitalism: Territorial restructuring and the making of national computing power in the U.S. and China
As computing power becomes central to geopolitical rivalry, cloud infrastructure is increasingly framed as critical to national security, economic resilience and technological sovereignty. Current debates often focus on global competition – especially between the U.S. and China – highlighting strategic investments, export controls and infrastructure diplomacy abroad. Yet far less attention has been paid to the domestic territorial transformations…
Techno-statecraft and industrial strategy: Semiconductor development in Arizona
The resurgence of U.S. industrial strategy discourse is not a centralised return of the state but a territorially fragmented form of techno-statecraft. This article analyzes Arizona's semiconductor expansion as a case in which subnational actors – agencies, utilities, universities, and developers – mobilise infrastructure, land-use policy, and regulatory coordination to attract global capital. Rather than a coherent national plan, Arizona's strat…
Pedestrian-oriented development in Beirut: A framework for estimating urban design impacts on pedestrian flows through modeling, participatory design, and scenario analysis
As municipalities are setting ambitious targets to increase non-motorized transportation mode shares, analytic frameworks for examining how such targets will be met become increasingly important. In this article, we update the Urban Network Analysis pedestrian modeling framework designed to link land use and urban development changes with pedestrian mobility outcomes by introducing new methods for capturing the effects of street properties on ped…
Techno-statecraft and industrial strategy: Semiconductor development in Arizona
The resurgence of U.S. industrial strategy discourse is not a centralised return of the state but a territorially fragmented form of techno-statecraft. This article analyzes Arizona's semiconductor expansion as a case in which subnational actors – agencies, utilities, universities, and developers – mobilise infrastructure, land-use policy, and regulatory coordination to attract global capital. Rather than a coherent national plan, Arizona's strat…
Extended state infrastructure power in an age of networked competition: The cases of Thailand and Taiwan
Scholars have highlighted the emergence of infrastructure as a key domain in the struggle over network centrality in what some call the 'Second Cold War' between the U.S. and China. We qualify this 'infrastructural turn' by drawing attention to the contingent nature of state infrastructural power as depending on key domestic firms that often serve as intermediaries between domestic infrastructure and global supply chains or international partners…
Grounding the cloud: Urbanism in the shadow of data , by Ali Fard: Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press, 2026
Cloud computing has left us with a persistent cognitive impasse, as more of the world is encountered through digital interfaces that smooth partial representations into seemingly seamless systems w...
The fossil-AI nexus: Petrostate capitalism, computing power, and the production of powered land
The so-called AI boom is part of an infrastructure-led industrial strategy, converting speculative computing demand into bankable fossil generation, transmission expansion, and water- and land-intensive industrial sites. This article bridges digital infrastructure studies and the new state capitalism literature by theorising compute as a socially produced resource whose availability depends on territorial governance. I argue that the buildout is …
Governing the Cloud: Infrastructural Statecraft and the Political Ecology of Digital Expansion in Oregon
Oregon's wave of data center and semiconductor projects shows how cloud capitalism reorganizes resource systems and territorial governance. Examining Amazon, Google, and Intel, the article traces how fiscal incentives, utility programs, and land‐use instruments are recalibrated to secure hyperscale loads. Through a political‐ecological lens, it shows governance shifting from public deliberation to contractual and executive venues, including PPAs,…
Planning Under Preemption: State Power and Local Authority in the AI Data Center Era
Fallowing the fields, feeding the fabs: Territorial restructuring and the political-industrial ecology of high-tech Taiwan
The global expansion of digital infrastructure depends not only on technological innovation but also on the transformation of land, water, and governance systems. Taiwan's semiconductor boom—driven by worldwide demand for AI chips—has transformed the island's resource governance and territorial planning amid mounting climate stress and industrial urgency. While recent work in urban political ecology and infrastructure studies have analyzed the un…
Geopolitical ecologies of cloud capitalism: Territorial restructuring and the making of national computing power in the U.S. and China
As computing power becomes central to geopolitical rivalry, cloud infrastructure is increasingly framed as critical to national security, economic resilience and technological sovereignty. Current debates often focus on global competition – especially between the U.S. and China – highlighting strategic investments, export controls and infrastructure diplomacy abroad. Yet far less attention has been paid to the domestic territorial transformations…
Corporate governance (4 works) · Politics (4 works) · Water Governance and Infrastructure (3 works) · Computer Science (2 works) · Engineering (2 works) · Environmental governance (2 works) · Geography (2 works) · Political ecology (2 works) · Restructuring (2 works) · Sustainability and Climate Change Governance (2 works)