Platform Economy and Platformization

Abstract

In this book, we begin to interrogate the phenomenon of India’s expanding platform economy in terms of both rationale and process, linking a series of empirical inquiries to a critical analysis of the prevailing logics of ‘platform capitalism’ and ‘platformization’. This approach reflects our view that platforms are market systems rather than simply technical systems and explores the consequent need to situate their evolution in India both contextually and historically. In this respect, we diverge from an understanding of platforms as novel forms of firm emerging unheralded from the affordances of data mining and mobile technologies. In developing a markets-based approach towards the platform economy, we attempt to outline the key motivating tendencies playing out across the interlocking domains of commerce, technology, sociability and logistics. In doing so, this collection of chapters seeks to establish a set of analytical markers more precisely attuned to the cultural dynamics and path dependencies shaping digital marketplaces in India.