Amir H. Payberah - 2026-09-24

Uneven datafication is the core idea of our next reading circle, describing how datafication develops through colonial and capitalist relations.

In [1], Azadeh Akbari shows how digital systems, beyond turning life into data, also reorganize power. She develops her argument through three connected processes: (1) territory, where digital systems move beyond existing borders and create new borders around land, infrastructure, populations, and bodies, (2) dispossession, where people can lose control over land, labor, identity, time, or social relations when these become resources for data systems, and (3) unequal exchange, where data and data labor may be produced in peripheral regions while firms and core economies capture much of their value.

In [2], Orit Halpern agrees with Akbari that colonial histories matter, but she asks to be more careful about how we make that connection, since using a broad term like colonialism can hide important historical and institutional differences. Rather than calling every unequal digital system colonial, she argues that we should look at the specific mechanisms through which older power relations are carried into the present. To this end, in her paper, she mainly focuses on archival systems.

In [3], Payal Arora adds another angle by focusing more on the people living within these systems. By referring to the "privilege of pessimism", she argues that scholars who already have secure access to institutions and services may see digital technology mainly as a threat, while people in the Global South may also use it for work, mobility, or access to opportunities. Her main concern is to highlight the agency of people within unequal systems. And of course, agency here does not mean complete freedom, but how people make choices within conditions they did not choose and cannot fully control. However, an important question that needs more thought is "do these forms of agency challenge existing power structures, or do they sometimes end up reinforcing them?"

[1] Uneven Datafication, A. Akbari, Dialogues on Digital Society, 2026
[2] Uneven Development: On Data Colonialism, History and the Archive, O. Halpern, Dialogues on Digital Society, 2026
[3] Extending Uneven Datafication: Complicity, Aspiration, and the Privilege of Pessimism, P. Arora, Dialogues on Digital Society, 2026