The Birth of a Power: Amazon between Infrastructurisation, Data Control and Resistence

Platform Capitalism is not a thing, but a social relation mediated by data elaboration. Since capitalism has been “electricized”, then “digitalized” and finally “platformized”, data have become a source of economic and political power. “The social relation mediated by data elaboration” is today leaded by disruptive Big Tech Corporations such as Amazon. These global players should be conceived as economic, social, and political actors holding a power with unprecedented characteristics. Starting from the multifaceted infrastructural role played by Amazon (from AWS to territorial “warehousification”), in this chapter we will try to show how Amazon gained such a political, economic and social centrality in contemporary society, how such power hits the ground within the urban and which processes of resistances it has to address. As specific case study we will take into account the company’ expansion in Italy in the aftermath of pandemic and the conflicts this generated.