Project +

What is DataECO?

DataECO is a research project that critically examines the material, political and social infrastructures underpinning the digital industry, with a particular focus on data centres and the expanding deployment of artificial intelligence systems. The project focuses on resistance, social movements and forms of activism that challenge the establishment of data centres and the eco-social impacts of the development of artificial intelligence. It also explores the various solutions and alternatives proposed to reduce the digital industry’s impact, viewing these as socio-technical imaginaries through which the limits of computing are negotiated and contested in a context marked by the climate crisis.

Project contributions

DataECO adopts an ethnographic and comparative approach, articulated around case studies in Spain, Italy, Ireland and Chile. Through these contexts, the project analyses the positions, discourses and practices of various stakeholders — technology companies, policymakers, industry professionals, social movements, environmental organisations and the general public — with the aim of understanding who is involved in defining these limits, which interests and values come into conflict, and which models of technological development and sustainability are at stake. Ultimately, DataECO seeks to contribute to an informed public debate on what digital infrastructures we want, how their costs and benefits are distributed, and how forms of digitalisation compatible with principles of social and environmental justice can be developed.

Funding

This project is funded through an ATRAE grant supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (MICIU), the State Research Agency (AEI), and 10.13039/501100011033, at the University of Santiago de Compostela (Grant Reference: ATR2024-154984), awarded to Emiliano Treré as Principal Investigator.

Part of the project is also funded through the Collaboration Agreement between the Regional Ministry of Education, Science, Universities and Vocational Training of the Government of Galicia and the University of Santiago de Compostela (USC) for the Development of Strategic R&D&I Actions (2025–2026).

Additional funding has been provided by the Institute for Galician Studies and Development (IDEGA) through an internal funding call.

Team

DataECO is led by Emiliano Treré (Principal Investigator) and Ezequiel Soriano (Postdoctoral Researcher). They are members of ADS (Research Group on Algorithmic Cultures, Data Ecologies and Synthetic Media), which is part of the Novos Medios research group at the Faculty of Communication Sciences, University of Santiago de Compostela.

• Emiliano Treré

  Distinguished Researcher under the ATRAE programme at USC, where he leads the DataECO project. He is a Reader in Data Agency and Media Ecologies at Cardiff University and co-director of the Data Justice Lab. His research connects digital activism and social movements with critical data studies, algorithmic politics and digital disconnection, with particular attention to Latin America and the Global South. He is the author of five books; the most recent is Algorithms of Resistance (MIT Press, 2024), co-written with Tiziano Bonini. His research has received best book awards from the International Communication Association and the Association of Internet Researchers, as well as the MeCCSA Best Article Award.

• Ezequiel Soriano

  Anthropologist and artist, currently a researcher associated with the DataECO project at the University of Santiago de Compostela. He works on algorithmic folklore, synthetic writing and digital infrastructures through ethnography, artistic experimentation and post-digital publishing. He collaborates with research and artistic production centres such as the Santa Mònica Arts Centre, La Escocesa, the CCCB, Medialab Matadero, the UOC and the Institute of Network Cultures.

Advisory Board

DataECO has an international and interdisciplinary advisory board made up of specialists in digital anthropology, science and technology studies, artificial intelligence, digital infrastructures, communication, journalism and environmental justice.

The advisory board supports the development of the project, contributing critical perspectives, knowledge and experience that help enrich its research directions and open up new spaces for reflection on the limits of computational expansion, resistance and alternative digital futures.

• Elisenda Ardèvol — Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC)

  Social and cultural anthropologist whose research lies at the intersection of visual, digital and media anthropology. She is also interested in innovation and the development of qualitative research methodologies for digital ethnography, with a focus on design and future-oriented approaches. She is a researcher in Mediaccions, the UOC's R&D&I group on communication and digital culture.

• Verónica Bolón Canedo — Universidade da Coruña (UDC)

  Computer engineer (2009) and PhD in Computer Science (2014) from the Universidade da Coruña (UDC). She is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Information Technologies at UDC and a researcher at the ICT Research Centre (CITIC). Her doctoral thesis, on machine learning methods, received several awards from the Spanish Association for Artificial Intelligence, as well as UDC's Extraordinary Doctoral Award. She currently works in several areas of artificial intelligence research, particularly sustainable artificial intelligence, and is the director of the Inditex-UDC Chair in Green AI Algorithms.

• Francesca Comunello — Sapienza Università di Roma

  Her research and publications focus on the intersection of digital technology and society. This includes studies of network theories, digitally mediated social relationships, mobile communication, social media, social networking sites, social media and disaster communication, and digital inequalities. She holds a PhD in Communication from Sapienza University of Rome and is currently an Associate Professor of Sociology of Culture and Communication in the Department of Humanities at LUMSA University in Rome. She was previously an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication and Social Research (CORIS) at Sapienza University of Rome.

• Manuel García — CSIC / Universidad Carlos III de Madrid

  Mathematician, philosopher and doctoral researcher at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) and the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), supported by an FPU fellowship. He contributes to media outlets such as El Salto and is a member of Ecologistas en Acción.

• David Jofré — Universidad de Santiago de Chile (USACH)

  Journalist and PhD in Political Science from the University of Glasgow. Faculty member at the School of Journalism of the Universidad de Santiago de Chile and editor of the journal Re-Presentaciones. His research focuses on political communication, social movements and activism, environmental governance, media practices and digital adaptation. He currently leads the FONDECYT Initiation project (2026–2029) “At the Crossroads of Algorithmic Society: Risks, Opportunities and Negotiated Uses of Digital Technology by Environmental Defenders”.

• Pablo Jiménez Arandia — Independent investigative journalist

  Investigative reporter and independent journalist based in Barcelona, Spain. He specialises in the intersection of technology, social justice and human rights. Since 2020, Jiménez has reported on the use of algorithms and artificial intelligence systems in the public sector, including prisons, welfare policies and law enforcement. In 2023, he began an ongoing investigation into the social and environmental costs of artificial intelligence infrastructure. He collaborates with organisations such as Lighthouse Reports and AlgorithmWatch, and his work has appeared in media outlets including El País, Agence France-Presse (AFP), El Confidencial and Rest of World. In 2025, he was a Pulitzer Center fellow in its AI Accountability programme.

• Sebastián Lehuedé — King's College London

  Researcher focused on the governance of digital technologies from a global social justice perspective. His current project, “AI’s Nature”, explores the relationship between artificial intelligence and environmental justice. Through this work, he has collaborated with urban, rural and Indigenous communities in Chile and Colombia that have mobilised against a data centre project, opposed lithium extraction and participated in AI-focused conservation initiatives. His approach combines ethnographic methods, political ecology and decolonial thought. He has collaborated with research teams on a Horizon 2020 project addressing the ethics of the Internet of Things (LSE) and on digital platforms for human rights (University of Cambridge). He holds a PhD in Data, Networks and Society from the Department of Media and Communications at the London School of Economics and received the 2022 Dissertation Award from the Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR).

• Guillermo López García — Universitat de València

  Professor of Journalism at the University of Valencia. Most of his research has focused on political communication and online communication. He coordinates the Mediaflows R&D group, which brings these two research areas together through four successive projects funded under the Spanish National R&D Plan (2014-2016, 2017- 2020, 2021-2024 and 2024-2027). The group's research focuses on analysing communication flows between political parties, the media and citizens during processes of political mobilisation. He also directs the Valencian Digital Media Research Group, which has carried out pioneering studies mapping and characterising digital communication in the Valencian Community.

• Maite Mercado — Universitat de València

  Associate Professor of Journalism at the Universitat de València. She contributes to Revista Plaza and has been a member of the board of the Association of Environmental Information Journalists (APIA) since 2019. She holds degrees in Journalism and Humanities and a PhD from the Complutense University of Madrid. With more than fifty scientific publications, she has been awarded three six-year research merit periods by the CNEAI. She specialises in analysing media coverage of climate change and energy issues. She has been Principal Investigator of a national project examining coverage of energy policy in Spanish newspapers and is a member of the research team at the Climate Change Communication Observatory (UCM).

• Joanna Moll — Academy of Media Arts Cologne (KHM)

  Artist and researcher based in Barcelona and Berlin. Her work critically explores how techno-capitalist narratives shape the “literacy” of machines, humans and ecosystems. Her main research interests include the materiality of data, surveillance, interfaces and the increasing militarisation of civil society through digital media. She has exhibited her work at major institutions, museums, universities and festivals around the world, including the Venice Biennale, Art Basel, MAXXI, MMOMA, MACBA, Laboral, CCCB, ZKM, Bozar and the Natural History Museum in Berlin. She is co-founder of the Critical Interface Politics Research Group at HANGAR and has collaborated with organisations such as the Mozilla Foundation and the Barcelona Supercomputing Center. She is currently Professor of Networks in the Art Department at KHM Cologne and a guest lecturer at Elisava in Barcelona.

• Eugenia Siapera — University College Dublin (UCD)

  Eugenia Siapera is Professor of Digital Technology, Politics and Society and co-director of UCD's Centre for Digital Policy, together with Elizabeth Farries. Her research explores the intersections between digital technologies, media and society, focusing on digital politics, platform governance and the role of technology in shaping social justice. She has a particular interest in the dynamics of online hate speech, racism and misogyny. As Principal Investigator, she has led several research projects funded by bodies including the Irish Research Council (IRC), Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) and the EU Horizon programme.