The Platform Social is a research network of PhD students and ECRs based at the University of Edinburgh. Our work, spans digital sociology, economic sociology, urban studies and STS, and focuses on labour, placemaking, citizenship, education and economization. It is united by an interest in digital (data-driven, computational, algorithmic) platforms and technologies and the ethnographic approaches we use to explore the entanglements of these technologies in various economic, organisational, political, civic and social processes.

Through reading, reflection and conversation, we are finding out what the stakes are in studying these digital objects, and are forging our identity as a research network. We welcome anyone who is working on similar topics to join us for our hybrid reading sessions. These are sometimes held in a classroom…and sometimes at the pub!