Opaque and diaphanous epistemologies

Organizations that produce, support and recreate them in platform economies

Authors

  • Pablo Matías Herrera Facultad de Ciencias Económicas, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5961-2090
  • Ana Inés Heras Laboratorio Investigaciones Ciencias Humanas, Escuela Humanidades, Universidad Nacional de San Martín, Argentina Instituto para la Inclusión Social y el Desarrollo Humano, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, Argentina https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0844-1682

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.24215/23143738e118

Keywords:

platform economy, digital platforms, epistemic opacity, epistemic sharpness

Abstract

Technological changes in recent years have allowed the emergence, consolidation and -in some cases- dominance of platform businesses. The growth of this type of companies has been very fast since the mid-nineties, fostered by technological transformations and digital connection. However, not all uses of internet platforms are performed by companies, nor all companies have a capitalist organization. There are social-in-solidarity digital developments and platforms, based on open source, shared space, non-profit exchange, and a permanent work of socializing of what is being generated as knowledge.

In this paper, we first present a literature review of the field we call Platform Economy, to position the concept of epistemic opacity and explain the power of domination built by this mode. We will discuss the differences between two positions. One, which we call commercial platforms for profit with epistemic opacity and social domination, and another, which we call epistemic transparency   as they are free and open access public spaces to produce and share the capital stock jointly and severally.

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Author Biographies

Pablo Matías Herrera, Facultad de Ciencias Económicas, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina

Doctor en Ciencias Económicas de la Universidad de Buenos Aires y Coordinador académico de la Maestría y Especialización en Métodos Cuantitativos para la Gestión y Análisis de Datos en Organizaciones en Facultad de Ciencias Económicas de la Universidad de Buenos Aires. Investigador formado del Centro de Investigación en Metodologías Básicas y Aplicadas a la Gestión (CIMBAGE), Instituto de Investigaciones en Administración, Contabilidad y Métodos Cuantitativos para la Gestión (IADCOM), Facultad de Ciencias Económicas de la Universidad de Buenos Aires. Pertenece a la Red Internacional de Economías Comunitarias y al Instituto de Economías Comunitarias.

Ana Inés Heras, Laboratorio Investigaciones Ciencias Humanas, Escuela Humanidades, Universidad Nacional de San Martín, Argentina Instituto para la Inclusión Social y el Desarrollo Humano, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, Argentina

Doctora y Master en Educación (Universidad de California, 1995), títulos que obtuvo con una Beca Fulbright. Se especializó en sociolingüística interaccional y etnografía aplicadas al estudio de procesos sociales. Es investigadora Categoría Principal (CEDESI LICH Escuela de Humanidades, Universidad Nacional de San Martín) e Investigadora Principal del Instituto para la Inclusión Social y el Desarrollo Humano, donde coordina el Programa de Investigación Aprendizaje de y en autogestión. La autonomía como proyecto humano y el Área de Formación.  Enseña en el grado y postgrado de Universidad Nacional de San Martín.

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Published

2023-02-10

How to Cite

Herrera, P. M., & Heras, A. I. (2023). Opaque and diaphanous epistemologies: Organizations that produce, support and recreate them in platform economies. Ciencias Administrativas, (22), 118. https://doi.org/10.24215/23143738e118