Datafication and the Crisis of the Person in Postpolitical Society
Abstract
The article examines how big data—extremely large and complex sets of digital information that are computationally analyzed to identify patterns, behaviors, and relationships—contributes to the emergence of a postpolitical society in which individuals are increasingly transformed into objects of algorithmic quantification and classification. Drawing on the perspectives of Hannah Arendt, José Ortega y Gasset, Julián Marías, and Roger Scruton, the analysis explores how datafication reduces the person to fragmented and predictable data profiles, weakening the capacities for action, thought, judgment, and democratic participation. In this context, political and ethical questions increasingly become subordinated to technocratic forms of governance and algorithmic decision-making, contributing to a crisis of personhood and political agency. While acknowledging the hybrid nature of the human being as both personal and technical, the article emphasizes the importance of developing critical literacy regarding datafication in order to preserve human dignity, autonomy, and meaningful forms of collective life in increasingly automated societies.
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