Platform Politics

Corporate Power, Grassroots Movements and the Sharing Economy

Abstract:

The new digital platform economy, powered by companies like Airbnb, Uber and Deliveroo, promised to revolutionize the way we work and live. It was widely pitched as a social movement and, in the wake of the global financial crisis, as an alternative economy. My presentation is about the relationships between grassroots political action, and the social transformations associated with the digital,both in terms of political conflicts, and in terms of the corporate ‘cooptation’ of social movement language and tactics. Contra mainstream accounts and a meta-narrative of technological determinism, platform capitalism is not only shaped by business decisions, but is a result of struggles involving social movements, consumer politics and state interventions. I focus in particular on the tactics used by platform giants to avoid regulation. I identify some common trajectories around regulation across contexts and across several lean platforms. I discuss platform rhetoric, the contentious and confrontational language and stories told by platform businesses. Using a case study of former Airbnb workers, I also delve into ‘platform power’, the ways in which platforms politically mobilise their users and allies to shape or avoid state regulation. I conclude reflecting on the implications for grassroots politics and the political interactions around big tech associated with AI. Grassroots political action plays a key role in how digital platforms attempt to consolidate their power, and in how that power is being increasingly challenged.

About the speaker:

Luke Yates is Senior Lecturer in Sociology and Researcher in the Sustainable Consumption Institute at the University of Manchester. His research addresses social movements, especially everyday and prefigurative politics, the political struggles around new technology, theories of consumption, and everyday life.