AUTOMOBILE PLATFORM CAPITALISM: A VEHICULAR HISTORY OF THE DIGITAL ECONOMY

This paper takes up a variant on the meaning of the term platform – the base structure of an automobile – to explore the discursive and labour origins of what we now call platform capitalism. The argument made in this paper is that while Nick Snricek (2016) mentions Toyotism in passing in his Platform Capitalism, there is a much more profound relationship between Toyota – and Japanese “lean manufacture” or just-in-time automobile production in general – and the platform economy than has previously been appreciated. Based on extensive historical research on the automobile industry discussions in North America and Japan, and the platform managerial literature that emerged from it, this paper will offer an alternate genealogy of platform capitalism and the managerial theory that buttresses it, with the aim to ultimately offering a distinct mode of analysis of both platform theory and platform capitalism.