| Abstract |
In this chapter, we claim that research and policy making regarding the linkages between territorial development, livelihoods, and labour must be revisited critically considering the increasing influence of what is called platform capitalism on the way contemporary cities are built, operated, and financed. More particularly, technological advance, as reflected in the rise of cloud computing, the increased capacity to collect, process, and use big data, and the changing roles of corporate providers of ICT have all contributed to dramatically change the contemporary production of urban space in ways that go beyond the prevailing debate on smart or intelligent cities. Platform urbanism, as the spatial manifestation of these broader socio-technical and economic transformations in society, articulates consumers, technology and service providers, labour, and governments around an idealised project of a networked, sharing economy in cities. Nevertheless, analytically and empirically speaking, we have only just begun to explore the likely impacts of this process on cities, livelihoods, and urban labour. The objective of this chapter is to provide an initial contribution to this debate. We argue that the gradual dissemination of platform urbanism involves both direct (or supply-side effects, including urban labour) and indirect impacts on cities and livelihoods (through the consequences on users of urban services and the city). The former relates to how data-driven platform expansion, reinforced through network effects, has changed corporate strategies and choices related to technology, market scale and scope, and the required investments in infrastructure, labour, and urban space to realise entrepreneurial objectives. Indirect effects are associated with the fact that platforms are bound to influence the structure of provision and costs of housing and urban infrastructure and, as such, the cost of living of urban labour. 1 Based on a review of the literature on platform capitalism and urbanism, in this chapter we will discuss both impacts. After the introduction, the chapter is organised around three complementary sections. The first section briefly discusses the science and technology literature and its links with debates on smart cities, platform capitalism, and platform urbanism. This will include an analytical overview on the entanglements between platform capitalism, corporate strategies, and choices regarding capital, technology, labour, and the production of urban space. The second section provides an illustration of indirect impacts of platform urbanism on labour through the transformations of living costs and the structure of housing provision. More specifically, we will flesh out how real estate and housing platforms, in combination with institutional investors and investment funds, have gradually emerged as new actors in the finance, building, and operation of the built environment. This includes a discussion on real estate platforms as emerging producers and operators of urban livelihoods, with brief highlights on the specifics in Brazil. In the concluding third section we wrap up the main arguments and suggest elements for a research agenda on platform urbanism, cities, and labour with relevance for the Global South. © 2023 CRC Press. |
