Platforms or flatforms? Insights from an auto-ethnographic account of a virtual cycling app

Bibliographic Data

ID2181998
AuthorsFranck Cochoy (0000-0002-0382-5660, Université Toulouse - Jean Jaurès, corresponding author)
Year2025
Volume18
Issue2
Pages175-193
Publication date2025-03-04
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Cultural Economy (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1753-0350 • E-ISSN: 1753-0369
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/17530350.2024.2405816
OpenAlexW4406998373
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited47

This paper examines the flatform side of platforms: instead of looking at their abstract and global dimension (platforms as large infrastructures) on which platform studies mostly focus, it traces their local, material and experiential aspects (platforms as flat screen devices: ‘plat’ means ‘flat, ’ in French). Based on a personal auto-ethnography of a virtual cycling platform, it suggests that flatforms clearly function as both matching and attaching devices. They do so by providing visual affordances that play with quantified self, qualified self and gamified self features. However, the paper also shows that the seductive power of platforms is challenged by surrounding elements, such as the user’s personal trajectory and the usage environment they create. To meet this challenge, platforms are engaged in a constant work of redesign aimed at attracting and retaining subscribers and their equipment, whatever their specificities

Archaeology · Cycling · Ethnography · Geography · Sociology · Anthropology · Digital Economy and Work Transformation · Innovative Human-Technology Interaction · Sharing Economy and Platforms

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