Digital Platforms and Algorithmic Subjectivities

Algorithms are a form of productive power – so how may we conceptualise the newly merged terrains of social life, economy and self in a world of digital platforms? How do multiple self-quantifying practices interact with questions of class, race and gender? This edited collection considers algorithms at work – for what purposes encoded data about behaviour, attitudes, dispositions, relationships and preferences are deployed – and black box control, platform society theory and the formation of subjectivities. It details technological structures and lived experience of algorithms and the operation of platforms in areas such as crypto-finance, production, surveillance, welfare, activism in pandemic times. Finally, it asks if platform cooperativism, collaborative design and neomutualism offer new visions. Even as problems with labour and in society mount, subjectivities and counter subjectivities here produced appear as conscious participants of change and not so much the servants of algorithmic control and dominant platforms. Cover 1 Series 3 Copyright 7 Title 6 Contents 8 List of Illustrations 10 Introduction 12 Part I: Theoretical Foundations 30 1. The Californian Ideology Revisited 32 2. Platform Politics and a World Beyond Catastrophe 44 3. Domus Capitalismi 58 4. Platforms in a Time of Pandemic 74 5. Black Box Power 86 6. Algorithmic Management in Food Delivery Platforms 98 7. Extracting Free Labour 108 8. On Value and Labour in the Age of Platforms 118 Part II: Case Studies 132 9. The Digital Traces of Crypto-Finance 134 10. Labour Control and Commodification Strategies 146 11. Algorithmic Prosumers 160 12. Emerging Forms of Sociotechnical Organisation 178 13. A Workers’ Inquiry into Canvas and Zoom 194 14. Plat-Firming Welfare 212 15. Performed Subjectivities in Ranking and Recommendation Systems 224 16. The Social Costs of the Gig Economy and Institutional Responses 236 The Editors and Contributors 250 Index 258