IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/envira/v56y2024i5p1503-1520.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Speeding up, slowing down, losing grip: On digital media metronomes and timespace friction in the platformised temporalities of fashion design

Author

Listed:
  • Alica Repenning

Abstract

The body of literature addressing platform capitalism, platform labour and platform urbanism paints a compelling picture of how digital platforms shape the dynamics of both leisure and labour within the framework of the platform’s model for extracting value. However, this literature rarely captures how the global timespaces of digital platforms are translated in platform-mediated fields of work and which frictions occur in this process. Therefore, the contrasts between the rhythms of the platform prompting users towards instantaneous data production and the production capabilities of the humans, whose daily (work) life has become dependent on such platforms, remain largely unexplored. In this article, I develop the lens of timespace friction, by integrating the existing research on platform labour with a timespace perspective. The aim is to present a framework that reveals the contrasting relationship between the conflating rhythms of platform capitalism and platform-mediated labour. The mechanisms are explored utilising an ethnographic case study of the digital labour of independent fashion designers on Instagram. The proposed perspective on timespace friction demonstrates that mobile apps function as metronomes, nudging the timespaces of daily (work) life. Timespaces are thus negotiated in the polyrhythmic encounters of daily life, where designers challenge the rhythms of the platform or accelerate their practices to follow the imposed pace. A timespace friction perspective therefore sees beyond the smooth operating mechanisms of the platform economy that promise real-time data, flexibility and efficiency, revealing the hidden struggles of synchronisation (speeding up), de-synchronisation (slowing down) and losing grip (going viral).

Suggested Citation

  • Alica Repenning, 2024. "Speeding up, slowing down, losing grip: On digital media metronomes and timespace friction in the platformised temporalities of fashion design," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 56(5), pages 1503-1520, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:56:y:2024:i:5:p:1503-1520
    DOI: 10.1177/0308518X241231691
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0308518X241231691
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0308518X241231691?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lehdonvirta, Vili, 2018. "Flexibility in the Gig Economy: Managing Time on Three Online Piecework Platforms," SocArXiv k3hy4, Center for Open Science.
    2. Rob Kitchin, 2019. "The Timescape of Smart Cities," Annals of the American Association of Geographers, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 109(3), pages 775-790, May.
    3. Repenning, Alica & Oechslen, Anna, 2023. "Creative digipreneurs: Artistic entrepreneurial practices in platform-mediated space," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 4, pages 1-10.
    4. Deborah Leslie & Shauna Brail & Mia Hunt, 2014. "Crafting an Antidote to Fast Fashion: The Case of Toronto's Independent Fashion Design Sector," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(2), pages 222-239, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Gilles Paché, 2020. "Inside Delivery Platforms: The Covid-19 Pandemic And After," Post-Print hal-03041080, HAL.
    2. Niki Panteli & Andriana Rapti & Dora Scholarios, 2020. "‘If He Just Knew Who We Were’: Microworkers’ Emerging Bonds of Attachment in a Fragmented Employment Relationship," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 34(3), pages 476-494, June.
    3. Yáñez-Valdés, Claudia & Guerrero, Maribel & Barros-Celume, Sebastián & Ibáñez, María J., 2023. "Winds of change due to global lockdowns: Refreshing digital social entrepreneurship research paradigm," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 190(C).
    4. Arfive Gandhi & Yudho Giri Sucahyo, 2021. "Architecting an Advanced Maturity Model for Business Processes in the Gig Economy: A Platform-Based Project Standardization," Economies, MDPI, vol. 9(4), pages 1-21, November.
    5. Marie Nilsen & Trond Kongsvik & Stian Antonsen, 2022. "Taming Proteus: Challenges for Risk Regulation of Powerful Digital Labor Platforms," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(10), pages 1-23, May.
    6. Ping Sun & Julie Yujie Chen & Uma Rani, 2023. "From Flexible Labour to ‘Sticky Labour’: A Tracking Study of Workers in the Food-Delivery Platform Economy of China," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 37(2), pages 412-431, April.
    7. Heiland, Heiner, 2020. "Workers' Voice in platform labour: An Overview," WSI Studies 21, The Institute of Economic and Social Research (WSI), Hans Böckler Foundation.
    8. Tóth, Zsófia & Nemkova, Ekaterina & Hizsák, Gábor & Naudé, Peter, 2022. "Social capital creation on professional sharing economy platforms: The problems of rating dependency and the non-transferability of social capital," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 144(C), pages 450-460.
    9. Maria Hameed Khan & Jannine Williams & Penny Williams & Robyn Mayes, 2024. "Caring in the Gig Economy: A Relational Perspective of Decent Work," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 38(4), pages 1107-1127, August.
    10. Muldoon, James & Apostolidis, Paul, 2023. "‘Neither work nor leisure’: motivations of microworkers in the United Kingdom on three digital platforms," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 119941, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    11. Mikaela Palada & Paul Christian B. Pamor & Jasmin Rose B. Sulit & Renica Lourielle C. Villegas, 2024. "Uncovering the Challenges and Opportunities of Gig Economy for Small Businesses," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 8(8), pages 2348-2367, August.
    12. Ashley Baber, 2024. "Labour Market Engineers: Reconceptualising Labour Market Intermediaries with the Rise of the Gig Economy in the United States," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 38(3), pages 723-743, June.
    13. Yang Cai & Weiwei Kong & Yongsheng Lian & Xiangxin Jin, 2021. "Depressive Symptoms among Chinese Informal Employees in the Digital Era," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(10), pages 1-13, May.
    14. Thulin, Eva & Vilhelmson, Bertil & Brundin, Louise, 2023. "Telework after confinement: Interrogating the spatiotemporalities of home-based work life," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 113(C).
    15. Alex J Wood & Mark Graham & Vili Lehdonvirta & Isis Hjorth, 2019. "Good Gig, Bad Gig: Autonomy and Algorithmic Control in the Global Gig Economy," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 33(1), pages 56-75, February.
    16. Stefanie Gundert & Janine Leschke, 2024. "Challenges and potentials of evaluating platform work against established job-quality measures," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 45(3), pages 696-718, August.
    17. Zhang, Qingyu & Gao, Bohong & Luqman, Adeel, 2022. "Linking green supply chain management practices with competitiveness during covid 19: The role of big data analytics," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    18. Gabriella Buda & Barbara Pethes & József Lehota, 2019. "Dominant Consumer Attitudes in the Sharing Economy—A Representative Study in Hungary," Resources, MDPI, vol. 9(1), pages 1-27, December.
    19. Maciej Berk{e}sewicz & Dagmara Nikulin & Marcin Szymkowiak & Kamil Wilak, 2021. "The gig economy in Poland: evidence based on mobile big data," Papers 2106.12827, arXiv.org.
    20. Lehdonvirta, Vili & Kässi, Otto & Hjorth, Isis & Barnard, Helena & Graham, Mark, 2018. "The Global Platform Economy: A New Offshoring Institution Enabling Emerging-Economy Microproviders," SocArXiv jt4z7, Center for Open Science.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:56:y:2024:i:5:p:1503-1520. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.