Habermas’ colonization metaphor is undeveloped and presumes a false system-lifeworld split

Evidence

The closest Habermas comes to unpacking the metaphor of “colonization” is on page 355, where he says system imperatives “make their way into the lifeworld from the outside—like colonial masters coming into a tribal society—and force a process of assimilation upon it.” But this idea is not developed as a theory of colonialism, and its starting point—the separation of technological systems from lifeworld—is hard to reconcile with life in most, if not all, contemporary societies. More recently, and in a similar vein, Adam Greenfield has written about the Internet of Things as “the colonization of everyday life by information processing” (Radical Technologies, 32). — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 745

Categorization

• DEFINE: Gives the precise origin and limitation of the ‘colonization of the lifeworld’ metaphor — the key rival concept the data-colonialism frame must differentiate itself from.
• XREF: Useful for mapping the rival theoretical terrain: Habermasian colonization (systems encroaching on lifeworld from outside) vs. data colonialism (data relations produced immanently within contemporary life). This is a key divergence point for the attention/surveillance schools debate. — connects to: New social movements directly resist the colonization of the lifeworld — Alex Callinicos, Against Postmodernism: A Marxist…, 406; Abstract systems do not colonise the life-world but interact dialectically with it — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 347

Broader Connections

• Abstract systems do not colonise the life-world but interact dialectically with it #contradicts (0.90) — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 347
• New social movements directly resist the colonization of the lifeworld #complicates (0.80) — Alex Callinicos, Against Postmodernism, 406