In May 2017, The Economist’s front cover headlined a feature on Big Data titled ‘The World’s Most Valuable Resource’. The feature argued that data is the world’s new oil. Data would drive development in the twenty-first century in the same way as oil transformed the world’s economy and society in the early twentieth century. Such popular discourses claim that Big Data enables new ways of generating knowledge that will lead to innovative and creative possibilities. In the same month as The Economist ran this feature on Big Data, we organised the interdisciplinary symposium ‘Digital Objects, Digital Subjects: Activism, Research & Critique in the Age of Big Data Capitalism’ at the University of Westminster (May 20-21, 2017)1. The symposium was hosted by the Westminster Institute for Advanced Studies and the Department of Politics and International Relations. It featured ten presentations by leading international experts on the study of the digital in politics, the economy and society. This edited collection is a product of the conference, and provides further reflections on the presentations given.

2017年5月，《经济学人》头版头条刊登了一篇题为“世界上最有价值的资源”的大数据专题报道。《特写》认为，数据是世界新的石油。数据将推动21世纪的发展，正如石油在20世纪初改变世界经济和社会一样。这类流行语篇声称，大数据为产生知识提供了新的途径，从而带来了创新和创造性的可能性。就在《经济学人》刊登大数据专题报道的同一个月，我们在威斯敏斯特大学（2017年5月20日至21日）举办了跨学科研讨会“数字对象、数字主题：大数据资本主义时代的激进主义、研究与批判”1。研讨会由威斯敏斯特高级研究所和政治与国际关系系主办。会议由国际知名专家就数字在政治、经济和社会中的研究作了十次专题介绍。这本经过编辑的集锦是会议的产物，对所作的陈述作了进一步的思考。