Webinar
The costs of connection in the age of big data and AI
Watch the recording of the webinar here
In the current era of pervasive datafication, apps, platforms, and smart objects capture and translate our lives into data, that is extracted by corporations and sold back to us for profit. According to scholars Nick Couldry and Ulises Mejias, this global order is akin to historical colonialism's appropriation of land and resources. In this webinar, Couldry and Mejias’ will discuss their work on “The Costs of Connection” (2019) and how we can understand the normalization of data extractivism in the age of data capitalism. Together with Couldry and Mejias, we will reflect on the framework of data colonialism and how historical structures extend into a future characterized by intensified datafication. We also engage in discussion on the tension between connection and resistance under data colonialism.
Speakers
Nick Couldry, Professor of Media, Communications and Social Theory, Department of Media and Communications at London School of Economics
Ulises Mejias, Professor of Communication Studies, State University of New York Oswego
Marie Kolling, Senior Researcher, Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS)
Sarah Seddig, PhD Candidate, Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS)
Sofie Henriksen, PhD Candidate, Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS)
Programme
14.00-14.10 Introduction, Sofie Henriksen
14.10-14.30 Presentation, Nick Couldry and Ulises Mejias
14.30-14.45 Discussion, Sarah Seddig
14.45-15.10 Q&A
15.10-15.15 Closing remarks, Marie Kolling
The webinar took place on 5 December 2023, 14.00-15.15 via Zoom.
This webinar is part of the DIIS seminar series DATA EXTRACTIVISM AND GLOBAL INEQUALITY.
The collection of data about people’s everyday lives and the extraction of value from this data has become a central feature of day-to-day operations by businesses, governments and non-governmental organisations alike who use algorithmic and data-driven tools. Data extractivism – a term coined in decolonial studies – situates the largescale collection of data we experience today in a long history of capitalism and colonialism. As such, contemporary data practices are seen as the continued extraction of value from human and ecological resources now through the harvesting of data. Rather than mediating inequalities, many of such data extracting schemes might be fueling inequalities across the globe. But what kinds of value are extracted from big data and for whom? And how can we study the practices, infrastructures, and implications of data extractivism through qualitative and/or ethnographic methods? Technological complexity, nondisclosure agreements, and the private ownership of digital infrastructures often prohibit detailed insights into the operation and use of algorithms and big data. Opening new fields of inquiry, the black box of data extractivism, requires reflection on novel methods. But how can we understand the quantification of people’s lives beyond quantitative methods?
The seminar series Data Extractivism and Global Inequality sheds light on the diverse ways in which contemporary data practices and infrastructures are linked to historic and global inequalities and how they can be approached methodologically. Between September and December 2023, practitioners and researchers whose work addresses data extraction in areas such as digital humanitarianism, microcredit programmes, algorithmic credit assessment and welfare policies will join us to discuss the ways in which data extraction mitigates, enforces or produces forms of inequality.
The seminar series is part of the DIIS TECH research initiative on technology and power.
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