Short abstract:

In our contribution, we investigate the situated imaginaries and their realization of the policy-buzzword of the twin transition in Austria and Ireland. This allows us to open up the discussion on the twin transition as a form of maladaptation to climate change.

Long abstract:

The so-called twin transition is the latest buzzword that has mushroomed in European Commission (EC) policy papers from the industrial strategy over pandemic recovery plans to zero-pollution plans. Since the European ‘Green Deal’ it evokes a narrative that envisions several wins: Not only do the green and digital transition mutually reinforce and support each other. Wherever they do, they are expected to increase the competitiveness of the EU, create new and sustainable (in a dual sense) jobs, and assure continuous economic growth.

Our contribution is situated in the framework of an ERC research project “Innovation Residues – modes and infrastructures of caring for our longue-durée environmental futures” (PI: Ulrike Felt, GA1010545) which critically engages with the coevolution of digitalization and environmental futures. Our analysis of twin transition discourse draws on policy papers from EC and member states, interviews with policy-makers, industry experts and civil society actors as well as on an ethnography of a data center conference.

On the one hand, we explore situated imaginaries of the twin transition. For Austria this lens reveals that it is embedded in a broader transition of state-ness where the state assumes centralized control over data. On the other hand, we focus on the realizations of these imaginaries. In Ireland this makes visible the way the twin transition serves as justification for an ever-growing data center industry which starts to encounter pushbacks from publics.

Both imaginaries and their realizations clearly open up the reading of the twin transition as a maladaptation to climate change.