The Politics of Platforms. Exploring Platforms’ Infrastructural Role and Power

Abstract

AbstractAccording to widespread literature, platforms are considered infrastructures of contemporary society. While we are accustomed to thinking of infrastructure in tangible terms, in a world where analogical and digital appear increasingly indistinguishable, platforms too become like bridges that support economic, cultural, social exchanges, and more. Assuming this characteristic, however, the fundamental question remains: what is the epistemological advantage in considering platforms as infrastructures? In this chapter, we will delve into what it means to conceive of platforms as infrastructures from a political perspective, and ultimately in terms of power. We will explore the relationship between platforms and State institutions (sometimes marked by collaboration, at other times by competition), and focus on relatively novel sources of power of digital giants, specifically algorithmic management and data extraction: through these capacities, platforms achieve and wield a form of governmental power, as understood in Foucauldian terms. Ultimately, rather than justifying the role of platforms as infrastructures, we will examine the political power that this position affords them, investigating the so-called “infrastructural power” they extend over society, and recalling the forms of resistance that counteract it.