Abstract: This Issue seeks to identify invariants that emerge from the analysis of platforms in information and communication studies, focusing on the ongoing process of transformation (which we call "platformisation"), rather than on their consequences. By focusing on the phenomena of technological mediation and on the materiality of the mediation process, we examine the ability of platforms to influence and configure practices, to configure forms of authority and to organise action by imposing constraints, but also the existence of modes of appropriation and criticism on the part of users, who are often "dominated" by these platforms. From the articles in this Issue, we show that the logic of platformisation manifests itself in three ways that seem to impose themselves as dynamic forces cutting across the different fields investigated: the logic driving the rationalisation, standardisation and subjectivation of practices respectively. Thus, we show that a study of the dynamics of platformisation, which allows us to conduct a detailed analysis of the intrinsic norms and constraints of the technologies while examining the modes of resistance, is an original way of pursuing the critical examination of the development of digital platforms.
Bigot et al. (Fri,) studied this question.