"Discipline" and "Punish" in the Platform Capitalism: Users Control Through Digital Rating Processes

The paper is going to exploring some of the digital control systems that organize the mechanisms of platform economy. The platform capitalism (Srnicek, 2017) is a particular form of accumulation that thanks to technical algorithms is able to extract value from digital data leave by users online. The weight of data has an enormous economic power in the contemporary phase. The digital platforms permeating every social field have transformed social relations, shaped economic practices, influenced political arenas. Therefore, it is possible to take refer to the concept of "platform society" (Van Dijk & Poell & De Wall). New digital companies emerged after the global downturn of 2007/2008. One of these, Uber was born in this period. The famous digital company supply a platform of intermediation between demand and offer of private mobility. The innovation generated by this digital firm is about especially the marketing strategies. It promoted the principles of sharing, safety and self employment in the beginning of its rise. In fact, the drivers that work with this platform are called partners. However, they have all costs and risks of their business. In this way, Uber desrupted the traditional relation between employers and employees (Friedman, 2014) and revolutioned the platform economy. Today, it is possible to talk about the uberization of economy (Scholz, 2017). Drivers can be activated or deactivated by the digital platform. It could seem that Uber drivers are disengaged by the tradition controls of employers. But, differently they are object of the reviews of passengers. The same ones are reviewed by drivers. Both are geolocalized. Users are controlled each other through this system of reviews. From these informations are developed the ratings of the users and specific rankings. Even if there aren't reviews from one or the other side, there will be for both the feeling to be subject to control and evaluation. The digital platform "discipline" own users through this logic. It punish them in the case in which their ratings are low with a low rankings and consequent poor activation or deactivation of them. For such dynamics it is interesting to cite Michel Foucault through his text “Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison” (1977). It is crucial to consider his point of view to study the digital surveillance that connotes the platform capitalism. Such processes of control are used also by the other companies that operate in the market of sharing economy and gig economy. However it is important to consider the concept of digital panopticon (Furlong, 2018). To explore these dynamics, the principal question of research is: How is articulated the process of reviews and rating of users in the platform capitalism? Therefore, to answer to this questioni it will be analyzed the contributes in the debate of this topic in the international literature and it will be observe the principal digital platforms that operate in this field.