Data colonialism extends Polanyi’s fictional commodities to turn reality into tracked behavior
Evidence
Polanyi (Great Transformation, 78–79) had a similar formulation when he analyzed industrial capitalism in terms of “fictional commodities”: the transformation of work into “labor,” land into “real estate,” and exchange into “money.” Building on Polanyi, Zuboff (“Big Other,” 84) argues that “reality” is now being turned into tracked “behaviour.” — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 740
Categorization
- DEFINE: Traces the concept lineage of data colonialism: Polanyi’s fictional commodities extended by Zuboff’s claim that ‘reality’ is now being converted into tracked ‘behaviour’.
- XREF: connects to: Data colonialism extracts human life as data for profit through data relations. — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 32; Data colonialism replaces cheap resources with cheap social data as its raw material — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 579; Data colonialism expands capitalism by absorbing previously uncommodified life streams — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 68 (+1 more)
Broader Connections
- Data colonialism extracts human life as data for profit through data relations.
#expands(0.85) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 32 - Data colonialism replaces cheap resources with cheap social data as its raw material
#corroborates(0.80) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 579 - Data colonialism expands capitalism by absorbing previously uncommodified life streams
#expands(0.80) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 68 - Early neoliberals prefigured Polanyi by demanding the economy be re-embedded in society.
#responds-to(0.75) — Quinn Slobodian, Globalists, 286