The Infrastructural Power in Platform Capitalism. Labor, Connectivity and Ecology

Journal title SOCIOLOGIA DEL LAVORO
Author/s Vando Borghi, Marco Marrone
Publishing Year 2022 Issue 2022/164 Language Italian
Pages 19 P. 51-69 File size 225 KB
DOI 10.3280/SL2022-164003
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This contribution aims to highlight, alongside the centrality assumed by digital plat- forms in our society, the emergence of an "infrastructural power" - a category we take from Michael Mann work - capable of conditioning both the work activities and the very forms of everyday life. The goal of this theoretical reflection is therefore the origin of this power, its characteristics, and the implications it has in both pro- ductive and reproductive capacity of society. After tracing the long-term transfor- mations that have taken place on the level of connectivity, the rise of platform’s social imaginary will be analyzed, as well as the consequences that it produces from the point of view of labor and within a wider ecological perspective. In the conclusions, the infrastructural lens will also be presented as a promising path to rethink an "inversion" of the material and immaterial components of the "infrastructural power" of platforms.

Keywords: Infrastructures, Platforms, Digital labor, Ecology

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Vando Borghi, Marco Marrone, Il potere infrastrutturale nel capitalismo di piattaforma. Lavoro, connettività ed ecologia in "SOCIOLOGIA DEL LAVORO " 164/2022, pp 51-69, DOI: 10.3280/SL2022-164003