La plataforma digital como ensamblaje sociotécnico: Aportes para pensar la relación entre humanos y dispositivos tecnológicos.

Abstract

: This essay seeks to establish a collaborative dialogue between studies of platform economy from the anthropological perspective, and the Actor-Network Theory, to understand the digital platform as a sociotechnical assembly that has been co-constructed by both human entities and non-human technological devices. In this sense, it seeks to problematize the platform economy as a phenomenon that must be approached from the technosocial point of view, which would imply, in the first instance, stripping technology of a passive role, to make visible the agency of materiality in its participation and creation of sociotechnical controversies that would be reconfiguring the relationships between humans and technology. To achieve the objective, it is proposed to show the theoretical debate between two approaches that have tried to transcend modern dualisms through the development of particular sensitivities towards the “non-human”, such as: the “ontological turn” and the Actor Network Theory. Subsequently, the assembly of digital platforms is framed as technological innovations that operate within the techno-scientific information society. And, finally, as an exercise to 'open the black box' of digital platforms, the methodology of the “four moments of translation”, proposed by Michel Callon (1986), is put into dialogue with the findings in the works of anthropologists: Carmen Bueno Castellanos (2018; 2020), Gustavo Lins Ribeiro (2018), Luis Reygadas (2018) and Néstor García Canclini (2018), who address various elements of the digital economy and virtual worlds.