Details

Project Platformisation: The impact of digital platforms on democracy in the Global South

A team from the University of Passau, led by Professor Wolfram Schaffar, holder of the Chair of Development Politics, is investigating how digital platforms are changing the political landscape, particularly in the Global South. The project is funded by the Gerda Henkel Foundation.

Uber, AirBnb, Ebay, Alibaba – all examples of platforms that have been playing an increasingly important role in our economy, especially since the coronavirus pandemic. They bring together traders and customers on a (digital) platform so that they can carry out a transaction. The platform itself does not usually produce any products of its own, but acts as a kind of intermediary between the two parties.

A team from the University of Passau, led by Professor Wolfram Schaffar, Chair of Development Politics, is investigating how the growing influence of platform-based economies is changing the political landscape, particularly in the Global South, in the research project ‘Platformisation’. A particular focus is on their possible influence on the emergence of authoritarian shifts that challenge the development of democracy. The team is investigating this using the cases of Argentina, Brazil, India, Turkey, Thailand and Myanmar.

The background to the project is a profound change: ‘The platformisation of life and work is reconfiguring ideological and political coordinates and has created the conditions for the emergence of an authoritarian turn,’ says Professor Schaffar. This is increasingly challenging the future of democracies in the countries of the Global South. Digital platforms and their algorithmic power are opening up new avenues for political communication and work processes. ‘They are changing the way information, discourse and emotions are circulated and the way work is organised,’ says Professor Schaffar.

The research also includes workshops such as ‘Platformisation, Forms of Authoritarianism, and the Future of Democracy: Perspectives from the Global South’, which took place at the University of Passau from 1 to 3 February 2024. It was organised by the Chair of Development Politics at the University of Passau and supported by the Passau International Centre for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies (PICAIS).

Under the direction of Professor Schaffar's project team, three key topics were discussed there: the political economy of platforms, perspectives from the Global South and the transformation of labour in platform economies.

Projects such as the workshop are intended to be the cornerstone of future research efforts aimed at ‘comprehensively understanding the complex interplay of platformisation, authoritarianism and democracy in the Global South and beyond,’ said Professor Schaffar.

In addition to Professor Schaffar, the project team at the University of Passau includes Dr Fathima Nizaruddin, Dr Gustavo Robles and Dr Ülker Sözen. The project is being funded by the Gerda Henkel Foundation for a period of three years.

More information:

Press release from the University of Passau on the project's kick-off workshop

This text was machine-translated from German.

Picture: Many people are on a street, their faces obscured by food delivery boxes. Copyright: Rompo Todo/Instagram: @_nuroco_rompotod

Principal Investigator(s) at the University	Prof. Dr. Wolfram Schaffar (Lehrstuhl für Entwicklungspolitik)
Project period	01.11.2023 - 31.10.2026
Source of funding	Gerda Henkel Stiftung > Gerda Henkel Stiftung - Projektförderung