Data colonialism’s continuity is functional, not literal, with historical colonialism.
Evidence
But that should not blind us to what remains a disturbing line of continuity: as happened historically, but under new conditions, human life today is becoming the object of appropriation for extraction and, in the process, enabling capitalism to move to a still higher scale and integration of operation. Our intent is not to make comparisons to the detailed contents or form of historical colonialism but to focus on colonialism’s enduring function, which we see as enacting illegitimate appropriation and exploitation and as redefining human relations so that the resulting dispossession comes to seem natural. — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 46
Categorization
- DEFINE: Clarifies the contested definitional boundary: the authors explicitly reject equating data colonialism with chattel slavery while asserting a functional continuity.
- XREF: Anticipates the likely objection to the term ‘colonialism’; good for mapping where this school diverges from attention/surveillance critics who rarely reach for colonial vocabulary. — connects to: Data colonialism’s temporality differs from prior colonialism’s engagement with the past — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 637; Data colonialism can only be understood within the longer history of colonialism and capitalism — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 57; Data colonialism continues the older colonialist economic and social order. — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 63 (+4 more)
Broader Connections
- Data colonialism’s temporality differs from prior colonialism’s engagement with the past
#corroborates(0.85) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 637 - Data colonialism continues the older colonialist economic and social order.
#qualifies(0.82) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 63 - Data colonialism can only be understood within the longer history of colonialism and capitalism
#qualifies(0.80) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 57 - Data colonialism is a transitional phase preceding a new extractive order.
#expands(0.75) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 354