Coordinating the city: platforms as flexible spatial arrangements

ABSTRACT

The platform is a flexible spatial arrangement that does not have a fixed territory but rather draws on other territorialized networks to actualize in urban form. The capacity for the platform to act occurs through its ability to articulate together more or less territorialized urban elements. It implies a reorganization of urban operations (such as transport, housing, and so on) not through new physical infrastructures, but instead through novel technologies of coordination of those already existing. At present, discussion of platforms in cities is dominated by the platform as company, which generates private value from the coordination of differently networked actors. However, appreciating the urban geography of the platform as a flexible spatial arrangement indicates that platforms can hold much promise for the organization of cities but requires a more equitable distribution of the value generated by coordination of urban actors.

KEYWORDS:

• Platforms
• flexibility
• agency
• arrangement
• urban space

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.