Register now for the online book launch of the Handbook of Platform Urbanism
Sarah Barns
Anna Berti Suman
Petter Törnberg
Edited by Annelien Smets and Pieter Ballon, imec-SMIT, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium
Edward Elgar Publishing
The Handbook of Platform Urbanism provides an in-depth exploration of how digital platforms are reshaping cities worldwide. It presents a comprehensive analysis of data-driven urban life, evaluating how platforms including Uber, Airbnb and Google Maps mediate public services, economic activities and social interactions.
Leading experts highlight the opportunities and challenges of urban platformisation, examining its economic, political and spatial implications through multidisciplinary insights. Chapters investigate key themes spanning governance, inequality, regulation and digital labour, drawing on a range of global case studies to critically assess how platform urbanism is redefining power structures and access to essential services. The Handbook showcases the influence of digital platforms on cities including Milan, Montréal and São Paulo, focussing on both Big Tech and community-driven alternatives. Ultimately, contributors use diverse methodologies to assess the socio-economic impact of these technologies in cities, analysing the dominance of major platforms alongside local initiatives.
The Handbook of Platform Urbanism serves as a crucial reference for scholars and studies of urban studies, political economy, media studies and human and economic geography. Policymakers and practitioners in city governance and urban planning will also benefit from its valuable insights.
Available: December 2025
Introduction to the Handbook of Platform Urbanism
Pieter Ballon and Annelien Smets
Platform urbanism: ideology, capitalism and inequalities
Federico Caprotti
The platform playbook: platforms as powerful organisational models for future cities
Sarah Barns
Platform sabotage
Aaron Shapiro
The urban political economy of attention: the case of São Paulo’s Centro
Petter Törnberg
Platform-based urban entrepreneurialism in China: the case of Zibo, the city of barbecue
Han Chu and Robert Hassink
Crowdfunding and value-sharing: the case of saving the Gartenbaukino cinema
Anders Rykkja and Carolina Dalla Chiesa
Subsidising network effects: the case of carpooling in France
Antoine Verhulst
Public-Private Partnerships in smart cities and the privatisation of citizenship
Bárbara Lazarotto and Paul De Hert
How law enables platform urbanism: the case of municipal power and platform regulation
Beatriz Botero Arcila
Institutional strategies in the sharing economy: the case of ride-hailing and hospitality lodging in Brussels
Michaël Distelmans and Ilse Scheerlinck
AI Localism: the emergence of AI governance at the local level
Sara Marcucci, Natalia González Alarcón and Stefaan Verhulst
Representation of space in Google Maps: the case of Poznań
Maciej Główczyński
Urban assemblages through digital platforms: the case of Istanbul
Fatih Eren
Methods in platform urbanism: everyday platform urbanism and ethnography
Johan Vaide
Platform commoning as a path to social justice in the datafied city
Laura Temmerman and Dorottya Varga
Platform cooperatives: the case of Gebiedonline
Filipe Mello Rose
Urban platforms as drivers of socio-environmental transformations: the case of civic monitoring and civic assemblies around Milan
Anna Berti Suman
Dual spatiality in platform communities: the case of Drivers Club Bogotá
Luis Hernando Lozano Paredes and Gabriela Quintana Vigiola
Methods in platform urbanism: participatory approaches and citizen science
Liubov Tupikina, Zahra Farook and Muki Haklay
Platformisation, technical citizenship and making space for rights in the city
Aphra Kerr and Jo Pierson
Soft masculinities: the case of food delivery platform workers in Helsinki
Yu-Shan Tseng
Contested data: the case of the gentrifying neighbourhood of Parc-Extension, Montréal
Yaya Baumann, Alessandra Renzi, Sepideh Shahamati and Tamara Vukov
Do smart cities need smart contracts? Community Benefits Agreements as blockchain-enabled accountability frameworks
Ushnish Sengupta