Abstract

Since capitalism has been “electrionified”, then “digitalized” and finally “platformized”, data have become a source of economic and political power: “the social relation mediated by data elaboration” is today leaded by Big Tech such as Amazon that should be conceived as an economic, social, and political actor holding a power with no precedent in capitalism history. Since 1990s we lived a process of digitalization that after economic crisis of 2007/08 substantiated into what Nick Srnicek labelled as “Platform Capitalism”. In the following pages scholars approaching the topic from different parts of the World will contribute to inquiry this paradigm. Starting from «the promise of simplicity» that on-demand economy offers (see Hlongwa), authors don’t miss to focus «on the interconnections between ecommerce, financial, and logistics operations» (see Filippetto and Harracà) behind the implementation of digital technologies. This means to consider the infrastructural role of platforms (Berfelde) or the business model that lies behind firms such Amazon (Rispoli), as well as to investigate platform labour since – as Fagioli states – «work organisation is a central issue in reflections on platform capitalism». Thus, in conclusion of the book, we propose “a manifesto for struggling within and against platform capitalism” where we try to sum up in eleven theses not only the main features that characterize platform capitalism today but also the traces for its overcoming.