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Niklas Steinke

Profile Picture: Niklas Steinke NS

M.A. Niklas Steinke Fellow

Research assistant Digital Geography

Mail: niklas.steinke@geo.uni-halle.de Room: H4 R.4.26 Consultation hours: Wed 10-11 a.m. (by appointment)(during the semester break only by appointment)

Niklas Steinke researches digital infrastructures, with a focus on data centers, and explores their social, spatial, and political impacts within broader processes of urban transformation.

Focus Areas:

Critical urban studies, data centres, infrastructures, urban temporality, qualitative methods, border regimes

Research

My research currently focuses on the expansion of data centers in Germany, primarily in the Berlin-Brandenburg region. Together with colleagues, I am investigating the effects of this expansion on the local electrical grid, and how new heating networks that use waste heat from data centers are developing spatially and organizationally. Another focus is on how the data center boom in the region is driving new speculative practices around grid connections and land, and drawing in new actors.

Biography

Since 10/2025
Research Associate, Digital Geography Research Group, Institute of Geosciences and Geography, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg

2021–2025
M.A. in Historical Urban Studies, Technical University of Berlin
Thesis: Extractive Urban Landscapes: On the Expansion of Data Centers in Berlin and the Transformation of Urban Infrastructures (awarded the Balg-Mächler Prize 2025)

09–12/2019
Study Abroad, University of Connecticut School of Law

2017–2021
B.A. in Politics and Law, University of Münster
Theoretical thesis on truth-telling in the work of Michel Foucault and Judith Butler

Teaching

Qualitative Methods for Geographers. Fundamentals and Case Studies in Urban Research. Winter Semester 2025/26

Publications

Steinke, N., & Halfar, F. (2026). Extraktive urbane Landschaften: Über die Expansion von Rechenzentren in Berlin und die Transformation städtischer Infrastrukturen. sub\urban. zeitschrift für kritische stadtforschung, 14(1), 39–64. https://doi.org/10.36900/suburban.v14i1.1056

Talks

  • “Extractive Urban Landscapes. The Data Center Expansion in Berlin and the Transformation of Urban Infrastructures.” (with F. Halfar) | The City Lab Berlin by Norwhich University | 11/2025
  • “The Data Center Expansion in Berlin and its Impacts on Urban Energy Infrastructures” (with F. Halfar)| Urban Management Program, TU Berlin | 11/2025
  • “Rechner und Ressourcen. Die Expansion von Rechenzentren und ihre Folgen für Berlin” (gemeinsam mit F. Halfar). | Im Rahmen von: Die Knäste der Katzenbilder. Wie Serverzentren die Ressourcen der Region Berlin-Brandenburg auffressen. Interlause Berlin, Talk Series on Urban Politics | 07/2025
  • “Digital Infrastructures. How Data Centers are transforming Berlin” (with F. Halfar) | CMS Lecture Series, Center for Metropolitan Studies, TU Berlin | 06/2025
  • “Extractive urban landscapes. Data Center expansion in Berlin and the transformation of urban infrastructures” (with F. Halfar) | Berlin International University of Applied Sciences | 05/2025
  • “From Cloud to Ground: Negotiating Space and Resources for Hyper-Scale Data Centers in Berlin” (with F. Halfar) | Urban Speculations Conference, University of Lüneburg | 02/2025
  • „Power and Pause. Structures and Strategies of Waiting in the Urban“ | In the Web of Time: Urban Temporalities as Scholarly Concepts – 2023 Student Conference at the Center for Metropolitan Studies, TU Berlin | 07/2023