The Economic Lives of Platforms: Rethinking the Political Economy of Digital Markets

This interdisciplinary collection rethinks the political economy of the digital market by asking what came before platforms and suggesting what might come after them. By unpacking the concept of ‘platform economies’ into locally embedded variations of digital markets, the book identifies what is new about contemporary platforms and what is characteristic of wider historical, social and economic currents. The diverse team of authors employ various analytical approaches, including in-depth ethnographic studies, and theoretical and analytical reconceptualizations of platforms and the industries they encompass. Tapping into current themes including the decolonisation of the internet, this book offers a timely assessment of the implications of emerging reconfigurations between technology, information, society and markets. Contents Acknowledgements 1 Rethinking the Political Economy of Digital Markets • Andreas Lindegaard Gregersen, Eva Iris Otto, Morten Axel Pedersen, Anne Mette Thorhauge and Jacob Ørmen 2 Modes of Connectivity: On the Economic Ontology of Platforms • Vincent Manzerolle 3 Platforms and the Social Imaginary of Ordinary Life • Juan M. del Nido 4 Burdens of Legacy: Enumerative Accountability in Digital Markets • Vibodh Parthasarathi 5 Voice Intelligence and the Future of Engagement Metrics on Commercial Platforms • Joseph Turow 6 Brokering Data Markets: The Agentive Power of App Builders at the Edge of Platforms • Eva Iris Otto 7 The Political Economic Process of ‘Platformization’: The Historical Trajectory of Alibaba • Elaine J. Yuan and Lin Zhang 8 Efficient and Illegitimate: Legitimacy Problems in the Platform Model • Andreas Gregersen and Jacob Ørmen 9 Player- Driven Economies and ‘Money at the Margins’: Game Items as Contingent Commodity Money • Anne Mette Thorhauge 10 After the Attention Economy: A Postdigital Anthropology of the Future • Morten Axel Pedersen References Index