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How consumer-initiated platforms shape family and consumption

Author

Listed:
  • Lydia Ottlewski

    (SDU - University of Southern Denmark)

  • Joonas Rokka

    (EM - EMLyon Business School)

  • John Schouten

    (MUN - Memorial University of Newfoundland = Université Memorial de Terre-Neuve [St. John's, Canada])

Abstract

Research has recently highlighted processes of platformization through which consumer activities are shaped by socio-technical features of digital environments. Prior theorizations have focused on corporate-initiated platform dynamics and affordances, emphasizing either the managerial facets of platformization or how consumers use and interact with these platforms. Our interpretive research on Familyship.org offers a contrasting case and theorizes how ordinary consumers, thwarted by social and legal constraints in their desires to create families, leverage platformization for family creation and consumption. Our findings conceptualize consumer-initiated platforms and show how their key affordances—embeddedness, privacy, modularization, and scaling—shape one of the most sacred spheres of life, the institution of family. Our study contributes by theorizing how consumer-initiated platform affordances differ from dominant corporate-initiated ones and why the differences matter. We discuss how they can help consumers to find solutions to acute consumption problems and to reimagine dominant cultural institutions.

Suggested Citation

  • Lydia Ottlewski & Joonas Rokka & John Schouten, 2024. "How consumer-initiated platforms shape family and consumption," Post-Print hal-04325754, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04325754
    DOI: 10.1177/14705931231201780
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-04325754
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
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    Keywords

    platforms; family; consumer culture;
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