Platform urbanism: ideology, capitalism and inequalities

Federico Caprotti

Chapter 2 in Handbook of Platform Urbanism, 2025, pp 17-28 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: This chapter presents and excavates the evolution of platform urbanism, exploring it as both a concept rooted in rich genealogical and idealistic traditions, and a collection of practices related to urban consumption, performance, and daily experiences in the city. Platforms are discussed as enablers of data intermediation across space, time and jurisdictional boundaries. The chapter raises key questions around current understandings of platform urbanism. First, it critically reflects on the link between capitalism and platform urbanism, asking whether that link holds when considering perspectives beyond the Global North, including governance-focused platforms such as those during the Covid pandemic or China's social credit system. Second, it examines the link between platform intermediation and the production of new forms of inequality (around the gig economy, precarity, etc.), critically interrogating the assumption that digital platforms must represent an improvement in urban life.

Keywords: Digital infrastructures; Gig economy; Intermediation; Platform urbanism; Smart city; Urban artificial intelligence (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
ISBN: 9781035313754
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