Platform Urbanism and Its Discontents

This collection of essays explores the ongoing transformation of urban spaces brought about by platform technologies. Digital platforms such as Facebook, Uber, Airbnb and Amazon are not only new kinds of business enterprise but also produce a completely new culture—from the products and services we use every day to entire urban neighborhoods that will be built by major platform enterprises in the coming years. By reorganizing access to a wide spectrum of fundamental domains, such as education, housing, health care or even political information, platforms are destined to become the most powerful players in regulating how we inhabit cities.
These multi-scalar changes raise significant questions about the social potentials and risks of the architecture of these all-encompassing ecosystems.
Authors Peter Moertenboeck and Helge Mooshammer are codirectors of the Centre for Global Architecture, an interdisciplinary initiative established to study the planetary changes affecting spatial production today.