Platform urbanism. Labour, migration and the transformation of urban space

The contribution analyses how digital platforms transform labour and life just as well lived space and material architecture of the contemporary city. This concerns not only labour relations, but also everyday forms and practices of mobility, consumption or reproduction. Based on extensive ethnographic research, we describe, firstly, the rise of platform labour in Berlin, with a focus on Uber, Deliveroo and Helpling. We analyse new forms of algorithmic organization, control and measure of labour in urban space and describe platform labour as primarily migrant work. Secondly, we sketch the outlines of an emerging platform urbanism, which includes an understanding of the spaces and geographies of digital platforms as well as a theoretical perspectivation of the term. And thirdly, we emphasize that critical analyses of emerging platform urbanism can help to understand how platforms aim to become indispensable urban infrastructures. This infrastructural emergence of urban platforms is not a smooth process, however, but is politically and economically contested.