In 2010 the mega-corporation Facebook finalized an agreement to build a massive data center in Prineville, a small town in central Oregon previously known for logging, cattle ranching, and as the headquarters of the Les Schwab tire company. This was a largely unanticipated event that local leaders nonetheless prepared for several decades before when they designated a rural economic zone on the outskirts of town. However, the enterprise zone sat mostly unused, an empty and dusty piece of high desert land dotted with sagebrush and juniper trees. I describe the preparatory efforts that laid the groundwork for the data center as effecting a “half-built assemblage.” Through such anticipatory reconfigurations, local leaders recognized the limits of regional government to overcome the challenges of their peripherality. In the controversy surrounding such data center deals, critics have often cast rural leaders as naive or as pandering to voters. However, I argue that the alliance with Facebook was one of the few courses of action available to local leaders that had any chance of realizing regional economic development goals. In seeking to understand the data center deal from a local perspective, I contribute an alternative notion of temporality to materialist theorizing by looking across much longer durations of time in relation to the political economy, the natural world, and other elements as a way to temper exaggerations of anthropocentric agency and the narrow attribution of blame.

中文翻译：

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关于半组装式装配：等待俄勒冈州Prineville的数据中心

大型公司Facebook在2010年完成了一项协议，该协议在俄勒冈州中部的一个小镇Prineville建立了一个大型数据中心，该小镇以前以伐木，畜牧业和Les Schwab轮胎公司的总部而闻名。然而，这在很大程度上是出乎意料的事件，地方领导人在他们指定城镇郊区的农村经济区之前，已经做好了几十年的准备。但是，企业区大部分未使用，是一片空旷且尘土飞扬的沙漠高地，上面布满了鼠尾草和杜松树。我将为数据中心奠定基础的准备工作描述为“半组装”。通过这种预期的重组，地方领导人认识到了区域政府克服外围挑战的局限性。在围绕此类数据中心交易的争议中，批评家经常将农村领导人视作天真或轻描淡写。但是，我认为与Facebook的联盟是地方领导人可采取的少数几项行动方案之一，它们有机会实现区域经济发展目标。在试图从本地角度理解数据中心交易时，我通过将与政治经济，自然世界和其他要素相关的更长的时间作为一种变通的方式，为唯物主义的理论化提供了另一种时间观念。以人为本的机构的夸大和怪罪的狭义归因。我认为与Facebook的联盟是地方领导人可采取的少数几项行动方案之一，它们有机会实现区域经济发展目标。在试图从本地角度理解数据中心交易时，我通过将与政治经济，自然世界和其他要素相关的更长的时间作为一种变通的方式，为唯物主义的理论化提供了另一种时间观念。以人为本的机构的夸大和怪罪的狭义归因。我认为与Facebook的联盟是地方领导人可采取的少数几项行动方案之一，它们有机会实现区域经济发展目标。在试图从本地角度理解数据中心交易时，我通过将与政治经济，自然世界和其他要素相关的更长的时间作为一种变通的方式，为唯物主义的理论化提供了另一种时间观念。以人为本的机构的夸大和怪罪的狭义归因。