No adequate metaphor yet describes digital platform power

Evidence

Ellen P. Goodman and Julia Powles (2016) observe, “We call them platforms, networks or gatekeepers. But these labels hardly fit. The appropriate metaphor eludes us; even if we describe them as vast empires, they are unlike any we’ve ever known” (para. 2) Developing new concepts that challenge the uncritical representation of digital technologies from the point of view of users is an important first step toward transforming these technologies in ways that better suit the needs and values of users. — James D. Kirylo (ed.), Reinventing Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 549

Categorization

• QUESTION: Worth chasing: what metaphors have emerged since 2016 (2019-2024) that finally fit the scale of platform power, and do any hold up?
• STORYSTEM: The void of an adequate metaphor for platform power is itself fertile ground for fiction — a society struggling to name its own infrastructure, where whoever coins the winning metaphor gains narrative control (echoes of Naming the world in Freire).
• XREF: connects to: Over-theorizing power as textuality can empty it of real political meaning — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 258; We lack adequate metaphors for the power of digital companies. — James D. Kirylo (ed.), Reinventing Pedagogy of the Oppressed:…, 549

Broader Connections

• Over-theorizing power as textuality can empty it of real political meaning #complicates (0.72) — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 258