From infrastructure to intermediation: the invisible labour and policy-skills mismatch in Taiwan’s cultural–technological governance

This paper examines Taiwan’s Cultural Technology Content Ecosystem (CTCE) policies through the Augmented Heritage Gateway (AHG) project in Tainan, revealing how policies privilege infrastructure and technology while relying on under-supported intermediary labour. These actors perform three essential functions—semantic mediation, infrastructural translation, and political negotiation—requiring fusion skills that integrate creative, technical, and relational competencies. Drawing on a multiphase qualitative study with stakeholders and experts, the paper advances an analysis centred on cultural intermediation under state-led governance, conceptualizing platformization as a governance modality and industrial policy as a structural condition shaping intermediary labour. Findings show the absence of intermediary roles in training and policy support, reflecting Taiwan’s technology-first and risk-averse governance culture. The study foregrounds the invisibility and precarity of intermediary labour and reframes intermediation as a site of responsibility shifting within cultural–technological ecosystems, showing how fusion skills absorb institutional risk under state-led governance and highlighting policy implications.