The key platform struggle is denaturalizing data abstraction, not securing payment for data

Evidence

Contrast the wages-for-housework argument of 1970s and 1980s feminists (Federici, Wages, 4; Delphy, Close to Home), which had the goal not of commodifying that work but of “denaturalizing” capitalism’s wider social relations so as to challenge them for the longer term. So it is today with platforms: the key issue is not securing payment but denaturalizing the abstraction of social relations through data whereby capitalism is able to expand ever deeper into the social world. — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 781

Categorization

• DEFINE: This is the clearest articulation in the chapter of what ‘denaturalizing’ means as a political strategy — drawing on the wages-for-housework precedent to define the platform-era critical move.
• XREF: Directly parallels ‘Complaints About Immodesty Go Way Back’ in that both analyze how an economic/political demand is actually a vehicle for denaturalizing deeper social relations — and maps onto the ADDENDUM on sacrifice as a stability mechanism, since denaturalization is precisely what destabilizes. — connects to: General data-protection frameworks cannot challenge extractive data economies. — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 555; Critique of data platforms must target power relations, not ethics lapses — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 443; Paying users for their data would legitimate rather than fix behavioral extraction — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 299 (+3 more)
• SEED: Angle: ‘The wages-for-housework precedent for the data economy’ — how an earlier feminist refusal of commodification models today’s anti-surveillance stance. This is a strong piece contrasting Federici’s denaturalizing move with the libertarian ‘pay me for my data’ proposals.

Broader Connections

• Paying users for their data would legitimate rather than fix behavioral extraction #corroborates (0.95) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 299
• Paying users for their data would not remedy the harms of continuous surveillance #corroborates (0.90) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 780
• Critique of data platforms must target power relations, not ethics lapses #expands (0.88) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 443