[Commlist] CFP: Reimagining Platforms: Research, Governance, and Labour

*CFP:  Reimagining Platforms: Research, Governance, and Labour*

*October 31, 2022*

*Edinburgh*

/Web is Dead. Long Live the Internet, /so goes the title of a story 
Chris Anderson and Michael Wolff published in Wired (2010). Their main 
argument was that digital culture was entering a new paradigm that would 
shape the next years of capitalism: we were on the verge of the age of 
“social media” facilitated by the rise of the streamlined and integrated 
“platform.” Platformization is premised on the principle of 
interoperability between technologies, software, and data (Helmond 2015; 
de Kloet, Poell, Guohua & Fai 2019). In the past decade, the story of 
successful platforms has been told repeatedly by platform owners, 
academics, and journalists alike. Social media platforms, such as 
Twitter, dominate and shape our news cycles. Facebook has grown to a 
position where it has two billion users and is one of the world’s most 
important advertising platforms. Airbnb has transformed travel markets 
globally, and Uber, Deliveroo, Skip the Dishes and other on-demand 
labour platforms now pose serious challenges to labour law and labour 
regulations across numerous countries (Pasquale 2016.)

As we head into 2022, corporate platform owners are looking for the next 
sectors to conquer, from intelligent connected vehicles (Alibaba), to 
virtual reality (Meta’s metaverse), and even outer space (Blue Origin). 
We propose that these entities are pursuing these directions not only 
voluntarily but also because they are facing criticism from the outside 
and from within. The Federal Trade Commission and 46 states in the US 
filed an antitrust lawsuit against Facebook in 2020 (Smith 2021). Gig 
workers across the globe are organizing to challenge the data-driven 
labour models (Guest 2021). A public demand for regulating, and even 
breaking up, platforms is growing (Taplin 2017). It may be too early to 
pronounce platforms dead,//but their vulnerability does carry a 
potential to rethink and reform their role and influence in our daily 
lives (McCammon & Lingel 2022). Additionally, it may be time to ask: 
which voices can (and do) shape the future of these platforms? How is 
academic research capable of influencing these conversations, especially 
in light of the access constraints that researchers face when examining 
proprietary platforms and systems? Who conceptualises notions of fair 
platform governance? What role do workers themselves play in reimagining 
platform futures?

/Reimagining Platforms /is//a new collaboration between The University 
of Edinburgh and University of Toronto. It is a one-day symposium taking 
place at the University of Edinburgh on October 31, 2022 that will bring 
academics and community and local partners together to develop methods 
and concepts to analyze the different futures and possibilities of 
platforms and platform economies. We invite papers and presentations 
that reimagine platforms in alignment with three specific themes: 1) 
researching proprietary digital platforms; 2) governing digital 
platforms; and 3) new labour futures.

**

*>>Researching Proprietary Platforms: Access, Methods, and Insight*

The academic subfield of platform studies explores how platforms and 
their attendant processes reshape consumption, production, and the 
distribution of cultural artifacts. Platforms are conceptualised as 
forms of infrastructure and public service media, as well as being 
deeply powerful and complex political actors. However, due to the 
proprietary nature of platforms and the corporations responsible for 
them, gaining research access to platform infrastructures, data, 
employees, and processes can be very challenging– if not impossible. In 
this section, we invite contributions that offer new methods for 
examining platforms and that are capable of addressing questions that 
are underrepresented in platform studies. How do (or can) we study 
platforms given the access constraints that researchers face?

*>> Governing Digital Platforms: Algorithms, Data, and Rights*

  Research of digital platforms shapes a vital critique of the platform 
as a necessary or needed social actor or assemblage. Scholars and 
researchers argue that platforms exploit our time and attention, that 
they gather novel and valuable data from users’ everyday behaviors, 
capture network effects and essentially dominate or attempt to 
monopolise markets. Others have argued that platforms function as data 
science companies, capturing and aggregating data at scale, while 
resisting regulations from the state (Sadowski and Badger 2020). This 
tendency isvisible, for instance, in platforms for on-demand work, which 
have become a deeply contested terrain of employment and privacy rights 
(Gregory 2020). In this section, we are looking for contributions that 
address the theme /of /governance of and /by/ platforms from different 
perspectives. How do (or can) different governance models - proposed by 
private entities, civil society and the state -  shape the future of 
platforms?

**

*>>New Labour Futures: Fair Work and Building With Workers*

Sorely missing from any discussion about the future of platforms is 
local voice. While platforms seemingly transcend state boundaries and 
work across and through global markets, platforms nonetheless shape and 
mediate local environments, particularly urban space, particularly for 
workers. These voices, however, are not reflected in the debates about 
the future of platforms. In this section, we are interested in 
presentations that address how labor practices can change platforms. 
What does fair work and building with workers mean in the context of 
platform economy?

*Keynote*: TBD

This event will take place in-person at the University of Edinburgh. All 
symposium presenters will be required to book their own travel and 
accommodation for the event. Papers presented in the symposium will form 
a backbone for a proposal for a journal special issue.

Please send a 250 word abstract to (k.gregory /at/ ed.ac.uk) 
<mailto:(k.gregory /at/ ed.ac.uk)>by July 8th.

https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/reimagining/ <https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/reimagining/>

_Organising Committee_

Tero Karppi, University of Toronto

Karen Gregory, University of Edinburgh

Kate Miltner, University of Edinburgh

Morgan Currie, University of Edinburgh

Liz McFall, University of Edinburgh

Cailean Gallagher, Workers Observatory, Edinburgh


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