Platform ecology: A user‐centric and relational conceptualization of online platforms

Online platforms provide a technological infrastructure allowing social actors to enact and utilize networks with a global reach. They play important roles as intermediaries and algorithm-based curators of social interaction. This paper addresses two knowledge gaps: First, while a growing number of...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Global networks (Oxford) 2022-07, Vol.22 (Early View), p.564-579
Main Authors: Ibert, Oliver, Oechslen, Anna, Repenning, Alica, Schmidt, Suntje
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Computer mediated communication
Concept formation
Ecology
Heuristic
ICT
Infrastructure
Internet
knowledge networks
network society
networks
Social dynamics
Social interaction
Social networks
Social systems
Society
transnational social relations
Transnationalism
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Summary:Online platforms provide a technological infrastructure allowing social actors to enact and utilize networks with a global reach. They play important roles as intermediaries and algorithm-based curators of social interaction. This paper addresses two knowledge gaps: First, while a growing number of empirical studies has deepened our insights into the social dynamics characterizing single platforms, little is known about the multiple ways in which users or user groups combine diverse online offers according to their preferences. Second, the empirical focus has mainly been on online interaction. However, in everyday practices, the online is always situated in offline practices. It is thus necessary to understand the complex interdependencies of online and offline spheres. This paper therefore aims to develop an ecological heuristic that positions the user(s) and their practices center stage in the analysis and to elucidate the on/offline opportunity spaces and the affordances and constraints they provide for user agency.
ISSN:1471-0374
1470-2266
1471-0374
DOI:10.1111/glob.12355