Stacked economization: a research program for the study of platforms

Conceived as a sequel to our papers on economization and marketization (Caliskan and Callon 2009; 2010), This article presents a research program for analyzing platforms. Caliskan and Callon (2009) have defined economization as the design and qualification of devices, agencies, representations, networks, and their distributed relations as ‘economic’ by social scientists and market actors. The second installment has presented marketization as a mode of economization that facilitates transactions with money within a socio-technical agencement on a space of power (Caliskan and Callon 2010). Updating our previous definitions and literature review, we turn our attention in this installment to platforms and propose an alternative approach. Critiquing two hegemonic perspectives on platforms – Platform Anachronism (platforms as mere markets with multiple sides) and Platform Reductionism (platforms as mere surveillance systems) – we define a platform as (1) a stacked economization process bringing together a variety of agencements such as gift, barter, and market, (2) which provides actors with tools of redefining their needs within an exploration space, (3) entailing layered relations of power. We argue that the program of platform study we describe in this paper provides researchers, economic actors, and policymakers with agile and effective tools of analysis, economization, and regulation.