Fall 2025 | Yale University
This seminar explores the phenomenon of digital platforms – intermediary infrastructures that connect end-users and complementors. These platforms have emerged in diverse socio-economic contexts, including social media (e.g., Instagram), video streaming (e.g., Twitch), digital labor (e.g., Uber), and e-commerce (e.g., Amazon). The course offers a multidisciplinary perspective on studying these platforms, viewed as an amalgamation of firms and multi-sided markets, each with their own distinctive history, governance, and infrastructures. Throughout this course, we will delve into the transformative role of these platforms in areas such as culture, labor, creativity, and democracy. Our discussions will draw upon comparative cases from the United States and abroad. In addition, the seminar aims to facilitate an in-depth dialogue on contemporary capitalism and the process of cultural production. We will engage with pertinent topics like inequality, surveillance, decentralization, and ethics in the digital age. Students are invited to contribute to these discussions by bringing examples and case studies from their personal experiences.
General
Part I: Theories of Platform Studies
Week 1 (Aug 29): Introduction
[\o] Poell, T., Nieborg, D., and Van Dijck, J. (2019). “Platformisation.” Internet Policy Review 8(4).
Week 2 (Sep 8): Internet History
[\c] Smyrnaios, N. (2019). Internet Oligopoly: The Corporate Takeover of Our Digital World. Emerald Publishing, 15–50.
[\c] Ceruzzi, P. E. (2012). Computing: A Concise History. MIT Press, 99–159.
[\o] Watch: “Why Big Tech Will Never Be Broken Up,” Business Casual.
Week 3 (Sep 15): Multi-Sided Markets
[\o] Poell, T., Nieborg, D., and Duffy, B. (2022). “Markets,” in Platforms and Cultural Production. Polity, 25–50.
[\a] McIntyre, D., Srinivasan, A., Afuah, A., Gawer, A., and Kretschmer, T. (2021). “Multisided Platforms as New Organizational Forms.” Academy of Management Perspectives 35(4), 566–583.
[\c] Zhu, F., and Iansiti, M. (2019). “Why Some Platforms Thrive and Others Don’t.” Harvard Business Review.
[\o] Watch: “Network Effects Predict the Future of Facebook,” NFX.
Further Readings:
[\c] Eisenmann, T., Parker, G., and Van Alstyne, M. W. (2006). “Strategies for Two-Sided Markets.” Harvard Business Review 84(10).
[\o] Rochet, J.-C., and Tirole, J. (2003). “Platform Competition in Two-Sided Markets.” Journal of the European Economic Association 1(4), 990–1029.
[\a] McIntyre, D. P., and Srinivasan, A. (2017). “Networks, Platforms, and Strategy: Emerging Views and Next Steps.” Strategic Management Journal 38, 141–160.
[\a] Casilli, A., and Posada, J. (2019). “The Platformization of Labor and Society,” in M. Graham and W. Dutton (eds.), Society and the Internet: How Networks of Information and Communication Are Changing Our Lives, 2nd ed. Oxford University Press, 293–306.
Week 4 (Sep 22): Digital Infrastructures
[\c] Poell, T., Nieborg, D., and Duffy, B. E. (2022). “Infrastructure,” in Platforms and Cultural Production. Polity, 51–76.
[\o] Edwards, A. (2021). “Platforms Are Infrastructures on Fire,” in T. S. Mullaney, B. Peters, M. Hicks, and K. Philip (eds.), Your Computer Is on Fire. MIT Press, 313–336.
[\o] Watch: “How Does the Internet Work?” Vox.
Further Readings:
[\a] Plantin, J.-C., Lagoze, C., Edwards, P. N., and Sandvig, C. (2018). “Infrastructure Studies Meet Platform Studies in the Age of Google and Facebook.” New Media & Society 20(1), 293–310.
[\a] Nieborg, D. B., and Helmond, A. (2018). “The Political Economy of Facebook’s Platformization in the Mobile Ecosystem: Facebook Messenger as a Platform Instance.” Media, Culture & Society.
[\a] Nechushtai, E. (2017). “Could Digital Platforms Capture the Media Through Infrastructure?” Journalism, 1–16.
[\o] Rosa, F. R., and Hague, J. A. (2020). “GAFA’s Information Infrastructure Distribution: Implications for the Global South.” TPRC48: The 48th Research Conference on Communication, Information and Internet Policy.
[\o] Khan, L. M. (2017). “Amazon’s Anti-Trust Paradox.” The Yale Law Review, 712–717, 755–783.
Week 5 (Sep 29): Platform Governance
[\c] Poell, T., Nieborg, D., and Duffy, B. E. (2022). “Governance,” in Platforms and Cultural Production. Polity.
[\a] Gorwa, R. (2019). “What Is Platform Governance?” Information, Communication & Society 22(6).
[\o] Gorwa, R. (2019). “The Platform Governance Triangle: Conceptualising the Informal Regulation of Online Content.” Internet Policy Review 8(2).
[\o] Watch: “Models for Platform Governance,” Center for International Governance Innovation.
Further Readings:
[\a] Caplan, R., and Gillespie, T. (2020). “Tiered Governance and Demonetization: The Shifting Terms of Labor and Compensation in the Platform Economy.” Social Media + Society.
[\a] Gillespie, T. (2014). “The Politics of Platforms.” New Media & Society 12(3), 347–367.
[\o] Mazzucato, M., Entsminger, J., and Kattel, R. (2020). “Public Value and Platform Governance.” UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose Working Paper Series (IIPP WP 2020-11).
[\a] Popiel, P., and Sang, Y. (2021). “Platforms’ Governance: Analyzing Digital Platforms’ Policy Preferences.” Global Perspectives 2(1), 1–13.
[\c] Lehdonvirta, V. (2022). “Cryptocracy: The Quest to Replace Politics with Technology,” in Cloud Empires: How Digital Platforms Are Overtaking the State and How We Can Regain Control. MIT Press, 131–154.
Part II: Topics in Platform Studies
Week 6 (Oct 6): Platform Labor
[\a] Vallas, S., and Schor, J. B. (2020). “What Do Platforms Do? Understanding the Gig Economy.” Annual Review of Sociology 46, 273–294.
[\c] Gray, M. L., and Suri, S. (2019). Ghost Work: How to Stop Silicon Valley from Building a New Global Underclass. Eamon Dolan Books, Chapters 1–2.
[\o] Perrigo, B. (2022). “Inside Facebook’s African Sweatshop.” TIME.
[\o] Watch: “The Gig Economy: Flexible Freedom or Wage Slavery?” Euronews.
Further Readings:
[\a] Irani, L. (2015). “The Cultural Work of Microwork.” New Media & Society 17(5), 720–739.
[\a] Van Doorn, N., and Badger, A. (2020). “Platform Capitalism’s Hidden Abode: Producing Data Assets in the Gig Economy.” Antipode 52(5), 1475–1495.
[\c] Woodcock, J., and Graham, M. (2019). The Gig Economy: A Critical Introduction. Polity.
[\o] Miceli, M., and Posada, J. (2022). “The Data-Production Dispositif.” Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction 6(CSCW2).
Week 8 (Oct 20): Datafied Democracy
[\o] Poell, T., Nieborg, D., and Duffy, B. E. (2022). “Democracy,” in Platforms and Cultural Production. Polity, 155–178.
[\o] Harvard Belfer Center and Shorenstein Center. (2023). Towards Digital Platforms and Public Purpose: Democracy and Internet Governance Initiative.
[\o] Magalhães, J. C., Keller, C. I., and Gorwa, R. (2025). “The Great Sysop: Elon Musk, X, and the Emergence of Platform Illiberalism.” Working Paper.
[\c] Watch: “Why Every Social Media Site Is a Dumpster Fire,” Vox.
Further Readings:
[\a] Karppi, T., and Nieborg, D. B. (2021). “Facebook Confessions: Corporate Abdication and Silicon Valley Dystopianism.” New Media & Society 23(9), 2634–2649.
[\o] Rest of World. (2021, November 9). “Why the Rest of the World Shrugged at the Facebook Papers.”
[\o] Bradshaw, S., and Howard, P. N. (2019). The Global Disinformation Order: 2019 Global Inventory of Organised Social Media Manipulation.
Week 9 (Oct 27): Creativity
[\o] Poell, T., Nieborg, D., and Duffy, B. E. (2022). “Creativity,” in Platforms and Cultural Production. Polity, 132–154.
[\a] Duffy, B. E., and Meisner, C. (2023). “Platform Governance at the Margins: Social Media Creators’ Experiences with Algorithmic (In)Visibility.” Media, Culture & Society 45(2), 285–304.
[\o] Watch: “We Tracked What Happens After TikTok Songs Go Viral,” Vox.
Further Readings:
[\a] Bonini, T., and Gandini, A. (2019). “‘First Week Is Editorial, Second Week Is Algorithmic’: Platform Gatekeepers and the Platformization of Music Curation.” Social Media + Society.
[\a] Persaud, C. J., and Perks, M. E. (2022). “Beauty From the Waist Up: Twitch Drag, Digital Labor, and Queer Mediated Liveness.” Television & New Media.
[\a] Guarriello, N.-B. (2019). “Never Give Up, Never Surrender: Game Live Streaming, Neoliberal Work, and Personalized Media Economies.” New Media & Society 21(8), 1750–1769.
Part III: Discussions on Digital Culture
Week 10 (Nov 3): Data Extractivism
[\o] Crawford, K., and Joler, V. (2018). Anatomy of an AI System.
[\o] Watch: “Why Chile’s Lithium Mining Is at a Crossroad.”
Week 12 (Nov 17): Inequality and Social Reproduction
[\c] Benjamin, R. (2019). Race After Technology. Polity, Chapters 1–2.
[\a] Posada, J. (2022). “Embedded Reproduction in Platform Data Work.” Information, Communication & Society 25(6).
[\o] Watch: “Are We Automating Racism?” Vox.
Further Readings:
[\a] Hamilton, A. M. (2020). “A Genealogy of Critical Race and Digital Studies: Past, Present, and Future.” Sociology of Race and Ethnicity 6(3), 292–301.
[\a] Jarrett, K. (2014). “The Relevance of ‘Women’s Work’: Social Reproduction and Immaterial Labor in Digital Media.” Television & New Media 15(1), 14–29.
Week 14 (Dec 1): Resistance and Alternatives
[\o] de Peuter, G., de Verteuil, G., and Machaka, S. (2022). Co-operatives, Work, and the Digital Economy: A Knowledge Synthesis Report. Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
[\o] Perrigo, B. (2023). “The Indian Startup Making AI Fairer—While Helping the Poor.” TIME.
Further Readings:
[\a] Muldoon, J. (2022). “Introduction,” in Platform Socialism: How to Reclaim Our Digital Future from Big Tech. Pluto Press.
[\a] Sandoval, M. (2020). “Entrepreneurial Activism? Platform Cooperativism Between Subversion and Co-optation.” Critical Sociology 46(6), 801–817.
[\o] Winseck, D. (2020). “Vampire Squids, ‘The Broken Internet’ and Platform Regulation.” Journal of Digital Media & Policy 11(3), 241–282.
[\a] Popiel, P. (2022). “Regulating Datafication and Platformization: Policy Silos and Tradeoffs in International Platform Inquiries.” Policy & Internet 14(1), 28–46.