Autonomist ‘social factory’ theory cannot explain data extraction because it presumes labor-like activity

Evidence

But Autonomists were rather vague about the mechanisms of this general intensification of capitalism’s influence over social life, except when they claimed the structure and norms of capitalist work somehow expanded out into social life. That idea gives us no grip at all on data colonialism, which, as we have shown, appropriates life as raw material whether or not it is actually labor, or even labor-like. — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 153

Categorization

• XREF: Relevant to the attention/surveillance school debate - the claim that data value need not involve labor distinguishes data colonialism from Immaterial Labor/playbour theories it is sometimes confused with. — connects to: Social media participation constitutes unpaid labor from which platforms extract value — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 505; Normal human activities that feel unproductive become exploited as data — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 675; Data exploitation resembles capitalism’s free ride on uncommodified life, not factory labor — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 326 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Data exploitation resembles capitalism’s free ride on uncommodified life, not factory labor #corroborates (0.85) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 326