Centering social-technical relations in studying platform urbanism: intersectionality for just futures in European cities
Abstract Platform-based services are rapidly transforming urban work, lives and spaces around the world. The rise of platforms dependent on largely expendable labour relations, with significant migrant involvement, must be seen as connected, and as replicating larger social processes rather than mer...
| Main Authors: | , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
BMC
2021-11-01
|
| Series: | Urban Transformations |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1186/s42854-021-00027-z |
| _version_ | 1818932898507522048 |
|---|---|
| author | Natasha A. Webster Qian Zhang |
| author_facet | Natasha A. Webster Qian Zhang |
| author_sort | Natasha A. Webster |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Platform-based services are rapidly transforming urban work, lives and spaces around the world. The rise of platforms dependent on largely expendable labour relations, with significant migrant involvement, must be seen as connected, and as replicating larger social processes rather than merely technological changes. This perspective paper urgently calls for an intersectional perspective to better understand social-technical relations crossing the digital-urban interface of platform urbanism in contemporary European cities. Critics of platforms and gig work, to date, have mainly focused on algorithms-based social control, degraded working conditions, problematic employment relations and precariousness of gig work. The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has both disrupted and amplified these issues, intensifying the vulnerability of gig workers. For example, in Sweden, migrant groups and gig workers were separately identified as being hardest hit by Covid, but with little attention to the interconnectivity between these categories, nor to how these groups are co-positioned vis-a-vis larger socio-economic inequalities. Thus, we argue for a deeper understanding of the social processes underlying platforms and for active investigation of how inequalities are being produced and/or maintained in/by these processes. Urban planners, designers and policy makers will need to actively address the hybrid (digital and physical) urban spaces produced in platform urbanism in order to prevent spatial and economic inequalities. We argue for a stronger recognition of interrelated and overlapping social categories such as gender and migrant status as central to the construction of mutually constitutive systems of oppression and discrimination produced in and through the platform urbanism. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-20T04:39:48Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-9880340c19a2482fab0043dd5c74ed42 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2524-8162 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-20T04:39:48Z |
| publishDate | 2021-11-01 |
| publisher | BMC |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Urban Transformations |
| spelling | doaj.art-9880340c19a2482fab0043dd5c74ed422022-12-21T19:53:10ZengBMCUrban Transformations2524-81622021-11-01311710.1186/s42854-021-00027-zCentering social-technical relations in studying platform urbanism: intersectionality for just futures in European citiesNatasha A. Webster0Qian Zhang1Department of Human Geography, Stockholm UniversityDepartment of Social and Economic Geography, Uppsala UniversityAbstract Platform-based services are rapidly transforming urban work, lives and spaces around the world. The rise of platforms dependent on largely expendable labour relations, with significant migrant involvement, must be seen as connected, and as replicating larger social processes rather than merely technological changes. This perspective paper urgently calls for an intersectional perspective to better understand social-technical relations crossing the digital-urban interface of platform urbanism in contemporary European cities. Critics of platforms and gig work, to date, have mainly focused on algorithms-based social control, degraded working conditions, problematic employment relations and precariousness of gig work. The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has both disrupted and amplified these issues, intensifying the vulnerability of gig workers. For example, in Sweden, migrant groups and gig workers were separately identified as being hardest hit by Covid, but with little attention to the interconnectivity between these categories, nor to how these groups are co-positioned vis-a-vis larger socio-economic inequalities. Thus, we argue for a deeper understanding of the social processes underlying platforms and for active investigation of how inequalities are being produced and/or maintained in/by these processes. Urban planners, designers and policy makers will need to actively address the hybrid (digital and physical) urban spaces produced in platform urbanism in order to prevent spatial and economic inequalities. We argue for a stronger recognition of interrelated and overlapping social categories such as gender and migrant status as central to the construction of mutually constitutive systems of oppression and discrimination produced in and through the platform urbanism.https://doi.org/10.1186/s42854-021-00027-zPlatform urbanismIntersectionalityGig economyMigrantWorkUrban inequalities |
| spellingShingle | Natasha A. Webster Qian Zhang Centering social-technical relations in studying platform urbanism: intersectionality for just futures in European cities Urban Transformations Platform urbanism Intersectionality Gig economy Migrant Work Urban inequalities |
| title | Centering social-technical relations in studying platform urbanism: intersectionality for just futures in European cities |
| title_full | Centering social-technical relations in studying platform urbanism: intersectionality for just futures in European cities |
| title_fullStr | Centering social-technical relations in studying platform urbanism: intersectionality for just futures in European cities |
| title_full_unstemmed | Centering social-technical relations in studying platform urbanism: intersectionality for just futures in European cities |
| title_short | Centering social-technical relations in studying platform urbanism: intersectionality for just futures in European cities |
| title_sort | centering social technical relations in studying platform urbanism intersectionality for just futures in european cities |
| topic | Platform urbanism Intersectionality Gig economy Migrant Work Urban inequalities |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1186/s42854-021-00027-z |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT natashaawebster centeringsocialtechnicalrelationsinstudyingplatformurbanismintersectionalityforjustfuturesineuropeancities AT qianzhang centeringsocialtechnicalrelationsinstudyingplatformurbanismintersectionalityforjustfuturesineuropeancities |