Transformation or Structural Change? What Polanyi Can Teach Us about the Platform Economy

Martin Kenney; John Zysman; Dafna Bearson

doi:10.6092/issn.1971-8853/11475

Authors

Martin F. Kenney Department of Human Ecology, University of California, Davis http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5093-917X

Martin Kenney is a Distinguished Professor of Community and Regional Development at the University of California, Davis and a Co-Director at the Berkeley Roundtable on the International Economy. He was the Arthur Andersen Distinguished Visitor at the University of Cambridge. His scholarly interests are in understanding the interplay between digital platforms, venture capital, and competition in capitalist economies and China.
John Zysman Department of Political Science, University of California, Berkeley

John Zysman is Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley, Co-Founder and Co-Director of the Berkeley Roundtable on the International Economy, and leads Future of Work research at the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society. His ongoing research covers the implications of platforms and intelligent tools for work, entrepreneurship, and international competition; and the economic challenges and opportunities of climate change and the green economy.
Dafna Bearson Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society, University of California, Berkeley

Dafna Bearson is a Research Data Analyst at the University of California, Berkeley. Her research focuses on how technology affects the economy, business strategy, and job quality.

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.1971-8853/11475

Keywords:

Platform economy, platforms, Polanyi, Power, Amazon, Google

Abstract

The rise of the platform economy marks the latest phase in the ongoing digital revolution. Indeed, the platform is to this digital era what the factory was to the industrial era, both a symbol and an organizing mechanism. Gernot Grabher and Jonas König (2020) used Karl Polanyi’s analysis of what he termed the “great transformation” to frame the rise of platform economy. The platform economy is remarkable as it confirms Polanyi’s (and Marx’s before him) insight that the reach of the market is based upon increased commodification as it has been able to reach into ever more parts of social life. We introduced the term “platform economy” in 2015 because we recognized that the digital platforms were changing the dynamics of capitalist accumulation – an analysis framed by regulationist school of political economy. The intuition was that the socio-technical innovation of digital online platforms was the critical fulcrum for an economic restructuring that would rewire the flows of data and ultimately money and power. The firms we have termed the "mega-platforms", Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Google, and Microsoft, have become the most valuable and powerful firms in the world. Importantly, the reach of these platforms is global and yet local and personal. Moreover, this platform power has only been reinforced during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Transformation or Structural Change? What Polanyi Can Teach Us about the Platform Economy

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