Revisiting Platform Capitalism: Rent-seeking, Surveillance, and Social Control
Main Article Content
Abstract
This article reflects on how platform capitalism has redefined social and economic dynamics by turning everyday interactions into monetizable data. To this end, it specifically examines how digital platforms, through dataveillance, not only monitor users but also predict their behaviors, transforming personal data into tools of control. This process of data collection and analysis generates a new business model based on rent-seeking, as digital platforms do not create value per se, but rather profit from their role as essential intermediaries in the production and consumption of goods and services. In doing so, they benefit from a rentier system that perpetuates technological dependency and commodifies social experiences. This also reconfigures leisure time into work time through prosumption, blurring the traditional boundaries between these two spheres. The study underscores the urgency of rethinking the relationships between technology and society, aiming to contribute to the state of the art in understanding the digital landscape and its impact on everyday practices and privacy.
Downloads
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International.
References
Barba del Horno, M. (2021). Prosumo, alienación y explotación. Reflexiones en torno al trabajo digital. Lan Harre-manak, 45, 184-207. https://doi.org/10.1387/lan-harremanak.22812 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1387/lan-harremanak.22812
Bauman, Z. y Lyon, D. (2013). Vigilancia líquida. Paidós.
Beunza, J. y Puertas, E. (2020). Tipos de algoritmos. En J. Beunza, E. Puertas y E. Condés, Manual práctico de Inteligencia Artificial en entornos sanitarios (pp. 35-39). Elsevier.
Bigo, D. (2009). Du panoptisme au Ban-optisme. Les micros logiques du contrôle dans la mondialisation. En P. A. Chardel y G. Rockhill (Dirs.). Technologies de contrôle dans la mondialisation : enjeux politiques, éthiques et esthétiques (pp. 59-80). Editions Kimé.
Brivot, M. y Gendron, Y. (2011). Beyond panopticism: On the ramifications of surveillance in a contemporary profesional setting. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 36(3), 135-155, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aos.2011.03.003 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aos.2011.03.003
Clowes, R. (2020). The Internet extended person: Exoself or doppelganger? Límite. Revista Interdisciplinaria de Filosofía y Psicología, 15(22), 1-23.
Durand, C. (2021). Tecnofeudalismo: Crítica de la economía digital. La Cebra-Kaxilda.
Foucault, M. (2002). Vigilar y castigar: Nacimiento de la prisión. Siglo XXI Editores.
Han, B-C. (2014). En el enjambre. Herder. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvt9k4gh
Harvey, D. (2014). Diecisiete contradicciones y el fin del capitalismo. Traficante de Sueños.
Hualde, A. (2024). No toda la inteligencia es artificial: viejas y nuevas formas de precarización en la economía digital. Cuestiones de Sociología, (30), e171. https://doi.org/10.24215/23468904e171 DOI: https://doi.org/10.24215/23468904e171
International Telecommunication Union (2023). Measuring digital development. Facts and Figures 2023. International Telecommunication Union. https://www.itu.int/hub/publication/d-ind-ict_mdd-2023-1/
Jara, N. (2024). Reflexiones sobre la plataformización de la cultura y la creación independiente en la era digital. Revista de Sociología, 39(1). https://doi.org/10.5354/0719-529X.2024.75739 DOI: https://doi.org/10.5354/0719-529X.2024.75739
Jiménez, A. y Rendueles, C. (2020). Capitalismo digital: fragilidad social, explotación y solucionismo tecnológico. Teknokultura, 17(2), 95-101. https://doi.org/10.5209/tekn.70378 DOI: https://doi.org/10.5209/tekn.70378
Lyon, D. (2018). The Culture of Surveillance: Watching as a Way of Life. Polity Press.
Mallamaci, M, Gordon, P., Krepki, D., Mónaco, J., Guardia, E. y D’Alessio, H. (2020). ¿Qué puede un bit? Datos y algoritmos como relación social fundamental de la economía digital. Sociológica, 35(101), 215-247. http://www.sociologicamexico.azc.mx/index.php/Sociologica/article/view/1650/1641
Morozov, E. (4 de febrero de 2019). Capitalism’s new clothes. The Baffler. https://thebaffler.com/latest/capitalisms-new-clothes-morozov
Quessada, D. y Sadin, E. (2010). Big Brother n'existe pas, il est partout. Multitudes, 1(40), 78-87. https://doi.org/10.3917/mult.040.0078 DOI: https://doi.org/10.3917/mult.040.0078
Ramonet, I. (2016). El imperio de la vigilancia. Clave Intelectual.
Sadowski, J. (2020). The Internet of Landlords: Digital Platforms and New Mechanisms of Rentier Capitalism. Antipode, 52(2), 562-580. https://doi.org/10.1111/anti.12595 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/anti.12595
Sánchez, F., Martínez, J. E. y Téllez, A. (2022). La seguridad en el ciberespacio desde una perspectiva sociocultural. Methaodos. Revista de Ciencias Sociales, 10(2), 243-258. https://doi.org/10.17502/mrcs.v10i2.577 DOI: https://doi.org/10.17502/mrcs.v10i2.577
Scasserra, S. y Martínez, C. (2021). Digital colonialism. Analysis of Europe’s trade agenda. Transnational Institute, TNI. https://www.tni.org/en/publication/digital-colonialism
Srnicek, N. (2018). Capitalismo de Plataformas. Caja Negra Editora.
Srnicek, N. (2020). Paths forward for the study of the Digital Economy. En J. Muldoon y W. Stronge (Eds.), Platforming Equality: Policy Challenges for the Digital Economy (pp. 85-90). Autonomy.
Törnberg, P. (2023). How platforms govern: Social regulation in digital capitalism. Big Data & Society, 10(1), 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1177/20539517231153808 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/20539517231153808
Urbano, R. (2022). The untamed and discreet role of data brokers in surveillance capitalism: A transnational and interdisciplinary overview. Internet Policy Review, 11(3), 1-27. https://doi.org/10.14763/2022.3.1670 DOI: https://doi.org/10.14763/2022.3.1670
Van Dijck, J. (2014). Datafication, dataism and dataveillance: Big Data between scientific paradigm and ideology. Surveillance y Society, 12(2), 197-208. https://doi.org/10.24908/ss.v12i2.4776 DOI: https://doi.org/10.24908/ss.v12i2.4776
Walton, N. y Nayak, B. S. (2021). Rethinking of Marxist perspectives on big data, artificial intelligence (AI) and capitalist economic development. Technological Forecasting & Social Change, 166, 1-8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2021.120576 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2021.120576
Zuboff, S. (2020). La era del capitalismo de la vigilancia. La lucha por un futuro humano frente a las nuevas fronteras del poder. Paidós.