Data colonialism can only be understood within the longer history of colonialism and capitalism

Evidence

This book is an attempt to disentangle a historical moment of great complexity. As the first subjects of an emerging data colonialism, we can make sense of this complexity only within the much longer history of colonialism and capitalism. We also need to do a considerable amount of interpretative and analytical work across today’s societies and economies. In writing this book, we have been fortunate enough to build on much excellent work within the past decade that has begun to uncover the shape and dynamics of human life’s appropriation through data. But in searching for a larger theoretical framework to make sense of the whole sweep of these developments—the framework of data colonialism—we have had to forge some new connections and take an eclectic path in terms of theory. Rather than positioning our argument exclusively within Marxism, postcolonialism, Foucauldian analyses of biopolitics, or critical-information science, our aim is to put these perspectives into conversation, taking the best from each to forge a new starting point adequate to today’s complex transformations and their hidden violence. — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 57

Categorization

• XREF: This frames data colonialism as a synthesis of Marxism, postcolonialism, and Foucauldian biopolitics — connects to the reader’s rival-school reading against attention/surveillance frameworks. — connects to: Data colonialism’s continuity is functional, not literal, with historical colonialism. — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 46; Data colonialism expands capitalism by absorbing previously uncommodified life streams — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 68; 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 (+7 more)
• DEFINE: Clarifies the book’s core theoretical move: data colonialism as an eclectic synthesis rather than a single inherited tradition.

Broader Connections

• Data colonialism expands capitalism by absorbing previously uncommodified life streams #expands (0.85) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 68
• Resistance to data colonialism must confront global capitalism, not just platforms #expands (0.85) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 650
• Data colonialism’s temporality differs from prior colonialism’s engagement with the past #qualifies (0.80) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 637
• The 4X framework exposes continuity between historical and data colonialism #exemplifies (0.78) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 274