Industrial platform capitalism

Abstract

Countering the theses of ‘post-industrial society’, in this article we develop the argument that platform capitalism synthesises the radicalisation and the spread of the logic of industrial production. In our analysis of platform capitalism and the mechanisms of outsourcing, we argue that online platforms provide empirical evidence of the development of the industrial logic of the production of goods (whether products or services, material and/or immaterial, tangible or intangible). They are the tip of the iceberg of an entire productive structure reconfigured by information technologies and neoliberal policies that are shaping an industrial platform capitalism. This process is ongoing, and we observe its tendency to spread the platformisation of work and its forms of exploitation, of labour relations devoid of rights. However, as in every other moment in the history of capitalism, this exploitation meets resistance from workers’ struggles, which exposes perverse facets of platform work.