Governing invisibility in the platform economy : excavating the logics of platform care

There has been a mounting research output on the social dimensions of the datafication, fragmentation and platformisation of infrastructures. This paper conceptually excavates the logics of "platform care" as a continuation of historically invisibilised reproductive labour. Although affective labour provided in private homes cannot be fully hierarchised, sold, nor algorithmically sorted, digital platforms provide short-term techno-fixes to fill in "care gaps", acting as technocapitalist assemblages governing invisibility. There has been a mounting research output on the social dimensions of the datafication, fragmentation and platformisation of infrastructures. This paper conceptually excavates the logics of 'platform care' as a continuation of historically invisibilised reproductive labour. Although affective labour provided in private homes cannot be fully hierarchised, sold, nor algorithmically sorted, digital platforms provide short-term techno-fixes to fill in "care gaps", acting as technocapitalist assemblages governing invisibility.