Academic researchers legitimate surveillance capitalism by providing its theoretical support.

Evidence

Although Pentland is not alone in this field, he is something of a high priest among an exclusive group of priests. Unlike Hal Varian, Pentland does not speak of Google in the first-person plural, but his work is showcased in surveillance capitalist enclaves, where it provides the kind of material and intellectual support that helps to legitimate instrumentarian practices. — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1331

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Surveillance-capitalism theory understates what digital platforms actually do — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism, 905; Pentland frames MIT’s speed norms as the avant-garde model for surveillance society — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1344; Academia demonstrates how loathed systems still secure compliance — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 1719

Broader Connections

• Surveillance-capitalism theory understates what digital platforms actually do #responds-to (0.80) — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism, 905