Radical Infrastructure
Imagining the Internet from the Ground Up
Book • 2026
Britt Paris's Radical Infrastructure examines alternative internet infrastructure projects across the American South and Midwest, combining interviews, site visits, and policy analysis.
The book situates the internet as material infrastructure—fiber, power, data centers—and analyzes how political economy, colonialism, and environmental contexts shape possibilities for collective alternatives.
Paris draws on historical and theoretical frameworks (including Rosa Luxemburg) to trace cooperative and municipal projects, their struggles against corporate and state power, and their potential for more democratic, people-centered networks.
Case studies include rural cooperatives, municipal networks like Chattanooga's EPB, and tensions with corporate actors such as Amazon and crypto firms.
The book concludes by sketching four possible technological futures and argues for organizing and policy changes to build a more equitable internet.
The book situates the internet as material infrastructure—fiber, power, data centers—and analyzes how political economy, colonialism, and environmental contexts shape possibilities for collective alternatives.
Paris draws on historical and theoretical frameworks (including Rosa Luxemburg) to trace cooperative and municipal projects, their struggles against corporate and state power, and their potential for more democratic, people-centered networks.
Case studies include rural cooperatives, municipal networks like Chattanooga's EPB, and tensions with corporate actors such as Amazon and crypto firms.
The book concludes by sketching four possible technological futures and argues for organizing and policy changes to build a more equitable internet.
Mentioned by
Mentioned in 0 episodes
Mentioned by ![undefined]()
![undefined]()
![undefined]()
Megan Finn
Britt Paris
Britt Paris
Britt Paris, "Radical Infrastructure: Imagining the Internet from the Ground Up" (U California Press, 2025)
