Platform Capitalism

A somewhat new, and highly profitable, feature of the economic landscape is the “platform”—a digital infrastructure powered by algorithms and automation that enables users to connect and interact. Making platforms valuable are zero marginal costs, non-linear scaling effects, and the economics of networks—all of which lead to positive feedback mechanisms, winner-take-all dynamics, and dominance of the market by a single firm or technology. This has led to the emergence of large “tech” behemoths—Google, Facebook, Amazon, Uber, Airbnb, etc.—that are uniquely positioned to discipline labor in new ways, extract and control unprecedented volumes of data, outsource risk, and assert governance and quasi-regulatory power over entire segments of the new digital economy. How did online audiences and digital revenue get so concentrated? What do online monopolies mean for business and society at large?

In this course, we will explore the nature and characteristics of the new platform digital economy. How is value created and distributed in “platform capitalism”? Has the platform economy inaugurated a new regime of capital accumulation? What kind of social and political order does it entail? Are platform workers “entreprenurial” or somehow more free, as euphemisms like the “sharing,” “gig,” or “on-demand” economy imply? Or, does the platform economy invariably depress wages, entrench existing inequalities and biases, and institute a new kind of surveillance regime? Drawing from a variety of books and articles, including Nick Srnicek’s Platform Capitalism, Matthew Hindman’s The Internet Trap, and Andrew McAfee and Erik Brynjolfsson’s Machine Platform Crowd, this course will critically examine the emerging dominance of the platform business model and its implications for jobs, growth, and inequality.

There *is* no physical Brooklyn Institute. We hold our classes all over (thus far) Brooklyn and Manhattan, in alternative spaces ranging from the back rooms of bars to bookstores to spaces in cultural centers, including the Center for Jewish History, the Goethe-Institut, and the Barnard Center for Research on Women. We can (and do) turn any space into a classroom. You will be notified of the exact location when you register for a class.

Instructors will contact students approximately one week prior to the first class with reading assignments and details about the course location.