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Platform economies: Beyond the North-South divide

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 November 2023

Janet Roitman
Janet Roitman*
Affiliation:
RMIT University, Australia
*
Corresponding author: Janet Roitman, RMIT University, Centre for Automated Decision-Making and Society, 106-108 Victoria Street, Carlton VIC, 3053 Australia. Email: Janet.Roitman@rmit.edu.au.
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Abstract

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Platform economies are depicted as the foundation for a new era of economic production. This transpires through the incorporation of digital technologies and algorithmic operations into the heart of economic and financial practices. However, different assumptions are made about the effects of digital platforms depending on geographical location. While digital platforms are approached as inherent to processes of financialization globally, they are reduced to processes of financial inclusion when referencing the ‘Global South’. Analyses of financialization as a one-way-vector - Global North to Global South - overlook the variability, the limits, and responses to financialization. In contrast, a focus on market devices illustrates the specificities of value creation. An example of this is ‘the float’, a form of financial value generated by mobile telecommunication operators, mobile money issuers, and commercial banks in Africa. Through this lens, we see instances of both value subjugation and autonomization, evidence that the fault lines of value production generated by ambiguous market devices are obscured by the Global North/Global South frame.

Keywords

Platform economiesfinancializationGlobal Southmobile moneyremittancesvalue creation
Type
Keynote essay
Information
Finance and Society , Volume 9 , Issue 1 , 2023 , pp. 1 - 13
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits noncommercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
Copyright
© 2023 The Author(s)

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