Data colonialism extends neoliberal ideology by appropriating all of life, not just non-market spheres.

Evidence

A second explanation of how the Cloud Empire emerged emphasizes not disruptions but continuities. We noted at the end of chapter 1 how data colonialism’s social transformations go even deeper than those that stem from neoliberal politics and culture. Whereas neoliberalism has been at war with those parts of social life that remain outside the market, data colonialism literally appropriates all of life for capitalism and therefore for markets. In this sense, data colonialism can be seen as a culmination of neoliberal ideology. In another sense, the kinds of changes that—in the West, at least—neoliberalism advocated or celebrated (the “liberalization” of trade and markets, the emergence of global financial markets, and the huge growth of the personal finance sector) were among the practical preconditions for data colonialism. Indeed, the tools of data colonialism (such as Machine Learning) emerged in part as solutions to the practical challenges thrown up by the need, for example, to manage complex global supply chains and massively accelerating financial flows. — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 169

Categorization

• DEFINE: Sharpens what distinguishes data colonialism from neoliberalism: appropriation of all life versus enclosure of remaining non-market spheres.
• XREF: Directly usable for a rival-school framing piece contrasting data colonialism with attention/surveillance critiques; also relates to Zuboff’s surveillance capitalism and Srnicek’s platform capitalism debates. — connects to: 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 completes capitalism’s shift from extracting nature to extracting social life. — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 168; Data colonialism annexes human life itself to capital — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 28 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Data colonialism expands capitalism by absorbing previously uncommodified life streams #expands (0.95) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 68
• Data colonialism completes capitalism’s shift from extracting nature to extracting social life. #expands (0.90) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 168
• Data colonialism annexes human life itself to capital #corroborates (0.90) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 28
• Data colonialism extracts human life as data for profit through data relations. #expands (0.90) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 32
• Data colonialism’s raw material is human life itself, not territory or labor #expands (0.85) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 66
• Data colonialism extracts ever more layers of human life as raw material #expands (0.85) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 66