Autonomy, Economy, and Colony: Practicing Human Identity in a State of Algorithmic Transition

Abstract

Recent studies in the social and political sciences are uncovering how today’s societal disruptions and increasingly pervasive technological advances are uniquely affecting people’s personal and collective sense of “self.” These effects are becoming especially prevalent as human activities become increasingly tracked, formed into data objects, managed, and transacted algorithmically. This paper will explore several aspects of this transformation and their impact on the performative of conceptualizing the self. They include autonomy in decision-making, forming relationships, and the trend from a neoliberal ideal of self-entrepreneur toward a “post-neoliberal” model of self-colonization. Paralleling these trends is the emergence of counter-narrative strategies for navigating the self, including an experiment in collective resistance referred to as participative circumvention.