Terrestrial politics and body-territory: two concepts to make sense of digital colonialism in Latin America

Abstract

Researchers have argued that data colonialism is paving the way for a new stage of capitalism, defined as the result of the appropriation and trade of “datafied” human experience (Couldry and Mejias 2019). While we agree that data colonialism normalizes the exploitation of human beings through data, we also contend that the analysis of the materiality of this exploitation should be extended to both bodies and territories. There is a research gap in the literature on territorializing the Internet and rendering its power asymmetries visible. In order to advance in filling this research gap, this article reviews two concepts to make sense of the digital colonialism in Latin America. On the one hand, we discuss Latour’s concept of “terrestrial politics” (2017, 2018; Latour and Weibel 2020. On the other hand, we examine the notion of “cuerpo-territorio” (body-territories) (Cabnal 2010; Colectivo Miradas Critiques 2017) and conduct a critical dialogue between terrestrial politics and body-territory. We argue that the notion of body-territories can contribute to Latour's proposal for a terrestrial politics by rendering visible the power relationships on the territories that sustain our digital society.

Keywords

• Data colonialism
• Latin America
• environmental conflicts
• feminisms
• Colonialismo de dados
• América Latina