Abstract
The Platform Society: Public Values in a Connected World explores what the title promises, first presenting a clear and useful exploration of today’s platform ecosystem and culminating with a larger set of theoretical questions asking if and how platforms should consider ‘public values’ in their design. Authors Van Dijck, Poell and De Waal thoughtfully lay out this exploration, grounding it in an in-depth mapping of the underlying infrastructure of the platforms that have become not only ubiquitous in our society, but have emerged as governing actors within it. Expanded from the authors’ work on a 2016 Dutch report, the book acknowledges the hope to speak to a wider academic audience, particularly students and cross-disciplinary scholars. The front matter reflexively addresses the ever-evolving digital landscape in which it was written and foregrounds its findings with the caveat that fast-paced governmental, societal and corporate evolution makes it stand on shifting sands. This serves not only as an honest context for the book, but a reminder for other researchers to understand the temporal nature of studying emerging technologies. Despite this inherent challenge to studying platforms, this monograph successfully makes visible their practices, infrastructure and interests that are often obscured from non-corporate researchers, therefore providing a most useful foundation for scholars to reference when studying platforms.
This book draws on a wealth of scholarship from a diverse range of disciplines and also turns to media coverage, policy and information provided by the platforms themselves to construct a wide and thorough representation of the platform ecosystem. As a result, it formally brings this knowledge to academia in a comprehensive way. It is structured like a manual, clearly organized into thematic chapters that contain distinct insights delineated by sub-sections to guide the reader through its intellectual project. The introduction gives a helpful guide to reading the book and weaves together larger themes that chapters address both individually and in concert with each other.
The first two chapters are the most widely useful to cultural sociologists as they chart the landscape for the platform society that the rest of the book will explore and deconstruct through examples. They give helpful written and visual diagrams of the platform ecosystem, noting that the vast majority of it is influenced by five dominating players: Alphabet (Google’s parent company), Facebook, Apple, Microsoft and Amazon. These ‘Big Five’ either own or connect with most other platforms, and a foundational premise to understanding the platform society at large is to consider the dependence of other platforms on the infrastructure and information of the Big Five. This urges scholars to contemplate the entire ecosystem of platforms even when studying a single platform. The authors then dive deeper into the platform mechanics of these major players and discuss how they monetize themselves. Within the interest of datafication, platforms first capture, then circulate, then commodify the wealth of data generated by their users. These first chapters are especially useful to sociologists looking critically at the role of platforms in wider cultural contexts; they provide a uniquely holistic view of the obscured corporate interests of these platforms as a whole.
The next several chapters contextualize the consideration of sectoral platforms within specific industries: news, urban transport, healthcare and education. This approach puts infrastructural platform mechanics in conversation with sectoral platforms, illuminating the relationships between each through topical examples. The unifying theme most explored between industries continues to be datafication, and cultural sociologists will take interest in the specific ways each industry is being reconfigured by the commodification of its users’ data. These chapters are less universally pertinent to a wider sociological audience yet do offer thematic examples of how a deep consideration of platforms in specific industries is needed.
Although the authors’ point of departure is media studies, the book acknowledges itself as a multidisciplinary effort that aims to be a thought starter for other disciplines. It provides a methodical analysis of the underlying mechanical structure of platforms with the aim to help scholars see, understand and study the platform society; however, it does not promise to theorize this exploration within sociology. Therefore, sociologists leveraging the text should view it as a practical guide to the digital ecosystem of platforms but be thoughtful in applying their own theoretical frameworks to the information explored. The final chapter extends the book’s initial question of how platforms organize public values and leverages it to further consider who should determine what values we should design into platforms. This chapter most directly extends the book’s subject matter into sociology, inviting scholars to ultimately embed platform mechanisms into their consideration of today’s public values, market and civil actors, and governments. With the help of the framework this book provides, this question invites scholars to go forth within their own sub-disciplines to consider the holistic and permeating impact platforms have on western society.