It is not possible to fully understand current global environmental politics and responses to environmental challenges without understanding the role of data platforms, devices, standards, and institutions, according to Jenny Goldstein, assistant professor in the Department of Global Development at Cornell University. In an in-person Chats in the Stacks book talk presented at Mann Library, Goldstein discusses her new book, “The Nature of Data: Infrastructures, Environments, Politics” (University of Nebraska Press, 2022), coedited with Eric Nost, assistant professor at the University of Guelph, which brings together scholars from geography, anthropology, science and technology studies, and ecology to explore these connections, and reveal how environmental politics are waged in the digital realm.Goldstein's work is driven by interests in environmental conservation and development in the tropics; intersections of data infrastructure and land governance; human health impacts of ecological change; global food and agriculture systems; the financialization of land; and the role of scientific knowledge in climate change politics.
