Where platforms meet infrastructures: digital platforms, urban resistance and the ambivalence of the city in the Italian case of Bologna. (1st January 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Marrone, Marco; Peterlongo, Gianmarco
• Is Part Of: Work, organisation, labour & globalisation. Volume 14:Number 1(2020)
• Page Start: 119
• Page End: 135
• Publication Date: 2020-01-01
• Subjects: digital platforms -- infrastructures -- city governance -- precarisation -- gentrification -- public action -- social movements -- informal unionism -- urban resistance; Work -- Periodicals; Labor -- Periodicals; Division of labor -- Periodicals; Industrial relations -- Periodicals; Division of labor; Industrial relations; Labor; Work; Periodicals; 331
• DOI: 10.13169/workorgalaboglob.14.1.0119
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1745-6428

Abstract

Abstract : This article focuses on the central and ambivalent role that cities play in the context of platform capitalism. While on the one hand, urban spaces have become an advanced ground for the operations of capital, on the other they have also become the main stage for resistance movements. The city is thus emerging as a decisive political and socio-economic dimension for understanding the impact of digital platforms on workers and on society. By presenting two Italian case studies from the city of Bologna, we aim to shed light on how cities not only provide the necessary resources and infrastructures for platforms to rise and operate, but also give rise to movements to organise and resist these developments.