Data colonialism drains the social space from which truth-to-power critique could arise.

Evidence

If lack of accountability to context is becoming a principle of the new social knowledge, then this serves data colonialism (the mutual implication of human life and digital technology for capitalism) rather well. Abstraction means removing from view the textures of social life that might otherwise provide the reference point for social actors to hold social knowledge to account. Above all what risks being hollowed out by the new social knowledge is the space from which human actors could once imagine themselves with a license to speak truth to power. When the social world, in all its possible layers of action, thought, and expression, becomes merely an input to capital, the once resounding Foucauldian principle that for every power there is resistance starts to ring hollow. — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 453

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: Challenges the widely-held Foucauldian assumption that every power relation inevitably generates resistance — a genuinely paradigm-shifting claim for critical theory readers.
• XREF: Contrasts with the ‘resistance is inevitable’ school in surveillance studies; connects to Zuboff’s surveillance-capitalism critique and the platform-power literature. — connects to: Data colonialism may eliminate the tactical spaces resistance relied on. — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 1203; Decolonial data critique can reframe current social realities beyond commodified inputs. — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 352; Data colonialism constitutes an antiecology that disrupts the self’s home space — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 606 (+2 more)
• ADDENDUM: Directly extends the ‘On Sacrifice’ article’s theme of power draining the space where critique might form.

Broader Connections

• Data colonialism constitutes an antiecology that disrupts the self’s home space #expands (0.85) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 606
• Data colonialism requires transforming society itself, not just extracting value #expands (0.85) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 365
• Data colonialism replaces cheap resources with cheap social data as its raw material #expands (0.80) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 579