Capitalism in the Platform Age: Emerging Assemblages of Labour and Welfare in Urban Spaces. By Sandro Mezzadra, Niccolò Cuppini, Mattia Frapporti, & Maurilio Pirone (Eds.), Springer 2024

Abstract

This edited volume, emerging from the Horizon 2020 project “Platform Labor in Urban Spaces” (PLUS), offers a critical, interdisciplinary investigation into the evolving nature of platform capitalism as an urban phenomenon. Focused on the operations of four distinct platforms—Uber, Deliveroo, Airbnb, and Helpling—across seven major European cities (including Bologna, London, and Lisbon), the book argues that digital platforms are not merely new firms but powerful digital infrastructures that constitute a new phase of capitalism: the Platform Age. The core analysis centers on the "platformization" of labour, urban life, and welfare, exploring how algorithmic management creates a "complex hyper-urbanscape" where precarity, affect, and feminised labour are intensified. The research employs a theoretical framework rooted in alternative, heterodox, and Marxian economics, focusing on the processes of valorization and the crisis of the historical "standard employment relationship" in the West. Crucially, the volume does not limit itself to critique but explores emerging worker subjectivities, informal unionism, and tangible alternatives, including proposals for new social protection models like universal basic income and innovative local governance practices.

Keywords. Platform Capitalism; Platform Labour; Platformization; Urban Governance; Welfare State Crisis.

JEL. B51; J81; L89; P13, R58.