Television & New Media· 2018Q1
Data Colonialism: Rethinking Big Data’s Relation to the Contemporary Subject
- 1,455citations
- Q1SCImago
- 2018year
Short summary
Social data capture and processing, termed 'data relations,' enacts 'data colonialism,' a new form of exploitation normalizing the appropriation of human life into data streams for profit, akin to historical colonialism's resource extraction.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Key points
- Social data is not found in nature but must be appropriated through 'data relations'.
- Data relations convert daily life into data streams, enabling continuous tracking.
- This process constitutes 'data colonialism,' a new form of exploitation normalizing human data appropriation.
- Data colonialism enables unprecedented social discrimination and behavioral influence.
- This new stage of capitalism involves the limitless capitalization of life.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Abstract
We are often told that data are the new oil. But unlike oil, data are not a substance found in nature. It must be appropriated. The capture and processing of social data unfolds through a process we call data relations, which ensures the “natural” conversion of daily life into a data stream. The result is nothing less than a new social order, based on continuous tracking, and offering unprecedented new opportunities for social discrimination and behavioral influence. We propose that this process is best understood through the history of colonialism. Thus, data relations enact a new form of data colonialism, normalizing the exploitation of human beings through data, just as historic colonialism appropriated territory and resources and ruled subjects for profit. Data colonialism paves the way for a new stage of capitalism whose outlines we only glimpse: the capitalization of life without limit.
The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Television & New Media, 2018 · DOI ↗
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