When data is capital: Datafication, accumulation, and extraction
Open accessAbstract
The collection and circulation of data is now a central element of increasingly more sectors of contemporary capitalism. This article analyses data as a form of capital that is distinct from, but has its roots in, economic capital. Data collection is driven by the perpetual cycle of capital accumulation, which in turn drives capital to construct and rely upon a universe in which everything is made of data. The imperative to capture all data, from all sources, by any means possible influences many key decisions about business models, political governance, and technological development. This article argues that many common practices of data accumulation should actually be understood in terms of data extraction, wherein data is taken with little regard for consent and compensation. By understanding data as a form capital, we can better analyse the meaning, practices, and implications of datafication as a political economic regime.
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Attention has become highly valuable, and a growing literature describes how economies and large technological infrastructures have grown around its capture, manipulation, and control.
“As an essential precursor to the personal data whose accumulation defines contemporary digital capitalism (Sadowski, 2019), attention has become a highly valuable-and a growing literature has described how entire economies and large technological infrastructures have grown around its capture, manipulation, and control (Franck, 2019; Hwang, 2020).”
From Social Media Imaginaries and the City: How the Attention Economy Is Reshaping Urban Built Environments (2025) · cites this paper as Sadowski, 2019
Cites
Big other: Surveillance Capitalism and the Prospects of an Information Civilization
Zuboff, S. (2015) · Journal of Information Technology · doi:10.1057/jit.2015.5 · Cited by 2,978 · cited 3× · see citing works
“…labels that refer to the political economic relationship between data and capitalism, such as ‘surveillance capitalism’ (Foster and McChesney, 2014; Zuboff, 2015), ‘informational capitalism’ (Fuchs, 2010), ‘communicative capitalism’ (Dean, 2005), ‘platform capitalism’ (Srnicek, 2016) and…”
BackgroundInfluentialHaggerty, K. D., & Ericson, R. V. (2000) · The British Journal of Sociology · doi:10.1080/00071310020015280 · Cited by 2,244 · see citing works
The Data Revolution: Big Data, Open Data, Data Infrastructures & Their Consequences
Kitchin, R. (2014) · doi:10.4135/9781473909472 · Cited by 1,469 · cited 1× · see citing works
“This, in turn, means that data is a foundational form of capital for everything from the ‘smart home’ to the ‘smart city,’ finance to governance, production to distribution, consumer devices to enterprise systems, and much more (Kitchin, 2014).”
BackgroundLabor in Informational Capitalism and on the Internet
Fuchs, C. (2010) · The Information Society · doi:10.1080/01972241003712215 · Cited by 630 · see citing works
Power, knowledge, and the subjects of privacy: understanding privacy as the ally of surveillance
Coll, S. (2014) · Information, Communication & Society · doi:10.1080/1369118x.2014.918636 · Cited by 97 · see citing works
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On the genealogy of machine learning datasets: A critical history of ImageNet
Denton, E., Hanna, A., Amironesei, R., Smart, A., & Nicole, H. (2021) · Big Data & Society · doi:10.1177/20539517211035955 · Cited by 221 · see citing works
Digitalizing procurement: The impact of data analytics on supply chain performance
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Törnberg, P. (2025) · Social Media + Society · doi:10.1177/20563051251323389 · Cited by 14 · see citing works
“As an essential precursor to the personal data whose accumulation defines contemporary digital capitalism (Sadowski, 2019), attention has become a highly valuable—and a growing literature has described how entire economies and large technological infrastructures have grown around its capture,…”
The valorization of interactions. Gift exchange, power and value creation on digital platforms
Nachtwey, O., & Schaupp, S. (2024) · Big Data & Society · doi:10.1177/20539517241259639 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
- Authors
- Sadowski, J.
- Affiliations
- The University of Sydney (AU)
- Corresponding author
- Sadowski, Jathan
- ORCID
- Sadowski, Jathan
- Venue
- Big Data & Society
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2019-01
- Volume
- 6
- Issue
- 1
- ISSN
- 2053-9517 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2910917352
- Cited by
- 1,057
- References
- 5
- Citations by year
- 2026: 145 · 2025: 150 · 2024: 168 · 2023: 191 · 2022: 179 · 2021: 129 · 2020: 73 · 2019: 22
- FWCI
- 202.94
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- Big Data & Society (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- DergiPark (Istanbul University) (submittedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- Stanford Graduate School of Business
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Political Economy and Marxism
- Social Sciences › Safety Research › Ethics and Social Impacts of AI
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Digital Economy and Work Transformation
- Keywords
- datafication, capital accumulation, data extraction, data collection, political economy of data, consent, compensation, business models, governance, technological progress
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