Call for Papers: Locating and Theorising Platform Power

Sunday, 15. January 2023 - 23:30

Special issue of the Internet Policy Review

Amidst popular conversations about antitrust regulation and trillion-dollar valuations, the notion of “platform power” has found firm footing in the scholarly lexicon. Media and communication scholars have tried to unpack platform power by theorising forms of corporate control that include “algorithmic power” (Bucher, 2018), “curatorial power” (Prey, 2020) and “metric power” (Beer, 2017). These studies are complemented by research that seeks to theorise and investigate the infrastructural, organisational and economic dimensions of corporate control (Caplan & boyd, 2018; DeNardis & Hackl, 2015; Plantin et al., 2018; Srnicek, 2017). In turn, business scholars have become more cognizant and vocal about the unprecedented clustering of capital (Parker et al., 2021; Bietti, 2022), while legal scholars have developed vocabulary and considered legal instruments to more effectively address platform power (Cohen, 2019; Khan, 2017).

Many of these interventions tend to play out within the confines of self-defined disciplinary silos, conferences and journals. Dialogues across the fields of media and communications, geography, economics and strategic management are still quite rare. This special issue aims to enable such dialogues, drawing insights from these different fields to systematically examine how platform power takes shape, where and how it evolves. In this effort, we understand platforms as “data infrastructures that facilitate, aggregate, monetize and govern interactions between end-users and content and service providers” (Poell et al., 2021, p. 5), and propose to approach power in platform markets and infrastructures as relational, but also highly uneven. In this sense, we assume that power is not held by a specific actor, but that it emerges from and shapes unequal relations between actors (Emirbayer, 1997). Contributors to the special issue are, of course, free to propose alternative understandings of platforms and other approaches to power.

Scope of the special issue

For this special issue we invite contributions that locate and theorise platform power through specific case studies on particular types of platforms and modes of platform power. First, we aim to locate platform power through detailed case studies by asking: where do relations of power take shape on a specific platform and how are these relations organised? We hypothesise that platform power is exerted, codified, and operationalised around particular platform services (Van Dijck et al., 2019). Leading platform companies typically own and operate a range of such services, which are tied together in a unified corporate structure (Cohen, 2019; Newman, 2020). We propose that these individual services have taken on infrastructural properties as they have morphed into ubiquitous, networked sociotechnical systems. Therefore, rather than analysing how a platform company constitutes an all-powerful monolithic entity, we call for greater specificity by locating, analysing and theorising the set(s) of services that together constitute platform power. Ideally, contributors to the special issue will explicitly interrogate how dominant platforms shape local and regional power relations around the globe.

Second, in this inquiry we also focus on the evolution of platforms. Infrastructural services, such as Google Maps, Apple’s App Store, or Facebook for Business each set standards and provide gateways for complementors to access other institutional actors, data and end-users. Yet, these services are constantly adapted to local regulatory frameworks, to retain end-users and complementors, and to respond to competitors in platform ecosystems (Nieborg & Helmond, 2018). In turn, such changes force complementors to adapt their own operations to continue offering their products and services through the platform. It is in these moments of change, when relations of dependence are reshuffled, that platform power becomes most visible. Moreover, the continuous evolution of platforms also points to the extreme diversity of services, business models, economic, social, cultural and political contexts, which are all contained by the notion of a platform. Hence, contributors are invited to both reflect on the evolving nature of the notion of platforms and the diverse realities that hide within this concept.

Third, while the special issue’s primary aim is to locate and theorise platform power, we also welcome contributors to discuss efforts by institutional actors – states, corporations, NGOs – to negotiate, countervail, or simply negate platform power. Such a discussion may include the analysis of concrete actions taken by these actors and/or a survey of potential public or private platform alternatives.

Focus of the papers

Potential case studies may include, but are not limited to:

• payment infrastructures
• digital advertising
• location services
• cloud computing and storage
• app stores
• identification services
• transportation services
• delivery services
• social networking
• messaging apps
• video and music streaming

Special issue editors

Thomas Poell (University of Amsterdam)
https://www.uva.nl/en/profile/p/o/t.poell/t.poell.html

David Nieborg (University of Toronto)
https://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/acm/david-nieborg

José van Dijck (Utrecht University)
https://www.uu.nl/staff/jftmvandijck

Robyn Caplan (Data & Society / Duke University)
https://sanford.duke.edu/profile/robyn-caplan/

Important dates

• 750-1000 word abstracts should be emailed to gdc@uva.nl (please put “Platform Power” in the subject line) by January 15, 2023. The abstract should articulate:
  • the issue or research question to be discussed,
  • the case study on which the article builds,
  • the methodological or critical framework used,
  • an indication of the expected findings or conclusions,
  • five key references.
• Decisions will be communicated to the authors by February 3, 2023.
• Full papers of the selected abstracts should be submitted by June 1, 2023 to be discussed in a hybrid paper workshop.
• June 26, 2023, the special issue editors will organise a hybrid paper workshop hosted by the University of Amsterdam. The workshop provides all special issue contributors with an opportunity for debate and an initial round of feedback on the papers. Accommodation and catering during the event will be covered for accepted contributors, who participate in the workshop on location (there is no travel support). It is also possible to participate in the workshop through Zoom if authors are not able to travel to Amsterdam.
• The deadline for submitting the revised paper for peer-review to the journal is October 31, 2023.
• The planned publication date of this special issue is Q1 2024.