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Cited by 58Political Economy and MarxismCultural Studies and PostmodernismEthics and Social Impacts of AI

The Costs of Connection: How Data Are Colonizing Human Life and Appropriating It for Capitalism

Couldry, Nick, Mejias, Ulises A·2020·Social Forces
DOI 10.1093/sf/soz172
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Abstract

In this provocative, consequential book, Couldry and Mejias theorize the dynamics of change in contemporary capitalism as grounded in a new form of data colonialism. They conceptualize the distinctive nature of data colonialism as appropriating myriad aspects of human life as the raw material for capitalism. Data colonialism thus extends the process of commodification into new spheres of social life. This includes all areas of social activity where data are appropriated for profit; they range from work to education, health care, economic transactions, and social media. As we engage in these diverse activities, corporations treat these various kinds of data as “‘just there’, freely available for extraction and the release of its potential for humankind” (Couldry and Mejias 2019, 9). Such corporate appropriation of contemporary data is similar to historical claims to land as belonging to no one under earlier forms of colonialism. In developing this argument, the authors draw persuasively on a 2011 World Economic Forum report that refers to personal data as a resource as valuable as oil, because of its ability to fuel economic processes. They delineate intriguing parallels between historical processes of colonial expansion by taking over land and other natural resources and contemporary processes of mining personal data as inputs for capitalism.

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Crossref · 10.1093/sf/soz172

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Authors
Couldry, N., & Mejias, U. A.
ORCID
Venue
Social Forces
Publisher
Oxford University Press (OUP)
Published
2020-03-05
Volume
99
Issue
1
Pages
e6-e6
ISSN
  • 0037-7732 (ISSN-L)
  • 1534-7605
DOI
10.1093/sf/soz172
OpenAlex
W4232320617
Semantic Scholar
9cbb7466f49ba94630b5a41b5e703043f698db06
Cited by
47
References
0
Citations by year
2026: 10 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 10 · 2020: 2
Type
book review
Language
en
Open access
closed
Licence
academic.oup.com/journals/pages/open_access/funder_policies/chorus/standard_publication_model (vor)
Locations
Social Forces (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Political Economy and Marxism
  • Social Sciences › Communication › Cultural Studies and Postmodernism
  • Social Sciences › Safety Research › Ethics and Social Impacts of AI
Keywords
data colonialism, commodification, capitalism, personal data, data extraction, social media, digital capitalism, colonialism, data as a resource

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