Data colonialism serves capitalism’s drive to maximize control of production inputs.
Evidence
Every aspect of data colonialism can be understood in terms of its contribution to a fundamental principle of capitalism: the drive to maximize control of the inputs to its production process. This requires a reasonably ordered state of the social world that makes markets possible and functional. In all societies characterized by increasingly overwhelming information flows, the premium on society’s legibility, even its basic countability, grows. In capitalist societies that are not democracies, such as China, capitalism’s desire for the control of production inputs works hand in hand with government’s unrestrained desire to control all inputs to the social order. — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 106
Categorization
- XREF: Connects ‘legibility/countability’ to James C. Scott’s ‘Seeing Like a State,’ and the China point to surveillance-capitalism-vs-data-colonialism rival-school debate central to this reading. — connects to: Data colonialism is jointly driven by corporate and state power — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 162; 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 extracts human life as data for profit through data relations. — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 32 (+1 more)
- QUESTION: The claim that Chinese capitalism and state control work ‘hand in hand’ needs unpacking against the data-colonialism frame’s claim that liberal democracies converge with authoritarian states.
- corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 106
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 is jointly driven by corporate and state power
#expands(0.80) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 162 - Data colonialism extracts human life as data for profit through data relations.
#corroborates(0.75) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 32