Demystifying big data in China: Infrastructure, labour and social change

To date, much of the discussion of big data in China remains caught between fears of authoritarian threats and dreams of developmental alternatives. Such mythifications reduce China's techno-development to a monolithic, state-led master plan, and conceal the labour, frictions and relations of power these data infrastructures depend on. Drawing on infrastructure studies, this Special Theme approaches data infrastructures as relational, contingent and socio-material arrangements through which datafication sustains capital accumulation, governance and power. Bringing together seven fieldwork-informed empirical articles and a commentary, the collection examines data infrastructures, data labour and data for social change in and from China, ranging from the artificial intelligence annotation industry to smart farming, rural governance and environmental activism, as well as the expansion of Chinese networks and platforms into the Global South. Reading across these contributions, this editorial argues that framing these related processes via the concept of infrastructural capitalism moves the debate beyond a singular ‘China model’ by specifying how power is produced, exercised and contested through infrastructures at home and abroad. Using China as a case and starting point, this Special Theme also lays the groundwork for more broadly theorising the politics of infrastructural capitalism across techno-developmental regimes.