Couchsurfing with Bateson: An ecology of digital platforms

Mikołajewska-Zając, Karolina ORCID: 0000-0001-7982-9142, Márton, Attila ORCID: 0000-0002-8947-6675 and Zundel, Mike ORCID: 0000-0003-3618-4668 (2022) Couchsurfing with Bateson: An ecology of digital platforms. Organization Studies, 43 (7). pp. 1115-1135.

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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/01708406211058628

Abstract

<jats:p> Digital platforms radically alter socio-economic and organizational patterns. In an ecological sense, they enable the rapid extension of tolerance limits by digitally scaling variables such as the availability of accommodation or labour. However, such maximization of specific variables in a complex ecology bears the danger of pathological runaway patterns. In our paper we draw on the work of Gregory Bateson to outline an analytical approach for the study of digital platforms as ecological phenomena, focusing on the effects of digitalization on the context in which platforms operate. To study such meta-patterns, we elaborate three interrelated concepts: stress, adaptation and budgets of flexibility. We exemplify these ideas through a longitudinal study of the early digital platform Couchsurfing and develop implications for our understanding of technology and organization. </jats:p>

Item Type:	Article
Divisions:	Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences > School of Management
Depositing User:	Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited:	22 Oct 2021 10:27
Last Modified:	11 Dec 2023 16:36
DOI:	10.1177/01708406211058628
Related URLs:	Publisher
URI:	https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3141259