Jean-Christophe Plantin
Dr Jean-Christophe Plantin is Associate Professor at the Department of Media and Communications at LSE. His research investigates the increasingly infrastructural role that digital platforms play in society.
In his first book, Participatory Mapping: New Data, New Cartography, (Wiley, 2014) he detailed the use of web-based mapping platforms by non-experts to participate in socio-technical debates, focusing on radiation mapping initiatives after March 11th 2011 in Fukushima, Japan. Following his postdoctoral research, he studied invisible labor in knowledge infrastructures, such as processing work in data archives, and the platformization of research data repositories. He is currently writing a monograph on how large tech companies shape our global communication infrastructure (through projects such as data centers, satellites, or undersea cables). He is also co-editing the SAGE Handbook for Data & Society (with Amelia Acker, Tommaso Venturini, and Antonia Walford).
Before joining the Department in 2015, he was Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Michigan (Department of Communication & School of Information). He holds a PhD in Communication & Information Studies from the Université de Technologie de Compiègne, France, and MAs from the Université Paris 8, France, and from the European Graduate School, Switzerland. He has held Visiting Fellowships at Northwestern University, Fudan University, Sciences Po, and Microsoft Research New England (Social Media Collective).
His work has been published in leading Media & Communications and Science & Technology Studies journals, including Media, Culture & Society, New Media & Society, Big Data & Society, Chinese Journal of Communication, International Journal of Communication, European Journal of Communication, and Sciences, Technology & Human Values. His research has been funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the European Regional Development Fund, LSE and the University of Michigan.
Phone: Office: +44 (0) 207 955 6781
Address: London School of Economics and Political Science
Media & Communications Department
Houghton Street
London WC2A 2AE
UK
In his first book, Participatory Mapping: New Data, New Cartography, (Wiley, 2014) he detailed the use of web-based mapping platforms by non-experts to participate in socio-technical debates, focusing on radiation mapping initiatives after March 11th 2011 in Fukushima, Japan. Following his postdoctoral research, he studied invisible labor in knowledge infrastructures, such as processing work in data archives, and the platformization of research data repositories. He is currently writing a monograph on how large tech companies shape our global communication infrastructure (through projects such as data centers, satellites, or undersea cables). He is also co-editing the SAGE Handbook for Data & Society (with Amelia Acker, Tommaso Venturini, and Antonia Walford).
Before joining the Department in 2015, he was Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Michigan (Department of Communication & School of Information). He holds a PhD in Communication & Information Studies from the Université de Technologie de Compiègne, France, and MAs from the Université Paris 8, France, and from the European Graduate School, Switzerland. He has held Visiting Fellowships at Northwestern University, Fudan University, Sciences Po, and Microsoft Research New England (Social Media Collective).
His work has been published in leading Media & Communications and Science & Technology Studies journals, including Media, Culture & Society, New Media & Society, Big Data & Society, Chinese Journal of Communication, International Journal of Communication, European Journal of Communication, and Sciences, Technology & Human Values. His research has been funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the European Regional Development Fund, LSE and the University of Michigan.
Phone: Office: +44 (0) 207 955 6781
Address: London School of Economics and Political Science
Media & Communications Department
Houghton Street
London WC2A 2AE
UK
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Papers by Jean-Christophe Plantin
Connective World. New York: Oxford University Press, 2018.
Tarleton Gillespie, Custodians of the Internet: Platforms, Content Moderation, and the Hidden
Decisions That Shape Social Media. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2018.
This article investigates the work of processors who curate and " clean " the data sets that researchers submit to data archives for archiving and further dissemination. Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted at the data processing unit of a major US social science data archive, I investigate how these data processors work, under which status, and how they contribute to data sharing. This article presents two main results. First, it contributes to the study of invisible technicians in science by showing that the same procedures can make technical work invisible outside and visible inside the archive, to allow peer review and quality control. Second, this article contributes to the social study of scientific data sharing, by showing that the organization of data processing directly stems from the conception that the
are collected through participation, crowdsourcing, and user-data harvesting, and used
to constantly improve the mapping service. Based on this capacity, Google Maps has
now attained a scale, reach, and social role similar to the existing infrastructures that
typically organize cartographic knowledge in society. After describing Google Maps as a
configuration relying on characteristics from both platforms and infrastructures, this
article investigates what this hybrid configuration means for public participation in
spatial knowledge in society. First, this turn to infrastructure for Google has
consequences for the status of public participation in mapmaking, which switches from
creating content to providing database maintenance activities. Second, if Google Maps
opens up cartography to participation, it simultaneously recentralizes this participatory
knowledge to serve its corporate interests. In this hybrid configuration, cartographic
knowledge is therefore simultaneously more participatory and more enclosed.
Two theoretical approaches have recently emerged to characterize new digital objects of study in the media landscape: infrastructure studies and platform studies. Despite their separate origins and different features, we demonstrate in this article how the cross-articulation of these two perspectives improves our understanding of current digital media. We use case studies of the Open Web, Facebook, and Google to demonstrate that infrastructure studies provides a valuable approach to the evolution of shared, widely accessible systems and services of the type often provided or regulated by governments in the public interest. On the other hand, platform studies captures how communication and expression are both enabled and constrained by new digital systems and new media. In these environments, platform-based services acquire characteristics of infrastructure, while both new and existing infrastructures are built or reorganized on the logic of platforms. We conclude by underlining the potential of this combined framework for future case studies.
extracted and republished data from official websites. Second, participation as data aggregation, where maps were used to display and compare radiation measurements from official or crowdsourced venues. The conclusion will highlight the necessity to study how online platforms assign a place and temporality to online participation.
Teaching Documents by Jean-Christophe Plantin
The course presents key readings in media & communications and sciences & technology studies to analyse contemporary instances of digital media platforms. Students will explore the multiple facets of the increasing power of digital platforms, by critically analysing how platforms replace, conflict with, or influence existing infrastructures, and whatare the social, political and epistemological consequences of these tensions. This focus on the relations between existing and emerging media configurations will invite students to investigate how platforms constitute ubiquitous media in everyday life, and how they increasingly shape communication, knowledge production, circulation of data, online participation and mobility.
The first part of the course will introduce the theoretical framework, blending together platform studies (coming from media & communication studies, political economy, management) with infrastructure studies (coming from history, information science, sciences & technology studies). The second part illustrate these interactions through four case studies that sees tech giants taking over the existing infrastructure for global connectivity: data centers, undersea cables, telecommunications networks, and satellites. The third part addresses current social debates around the platformization of the internet infrastructure, e.g. in terms of global access to internet, tension between states and sovereignty, and governance and regulation.
At the end of the course, students will be able to critically assess the increasing the power that tech giants have over the global infrastructure for connectivity, and to discuss the challenges this process brings in terms of access to communication, knowledge and democratic life.
This course is open to any student with interests in digital culture, visual culture, human geography, critical theory, and design. No prerequisite.
Connective World. New York: Oxford University Press, 2018.
Tarleton Gillespie, Custodians of the Internet: Platforms, Content Moderation, and the Hidden
Decisions That Shape Social Media. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2018.
This article investigates the work of processors who curate and " clean " the data sets that researchers submit to data archives for archiving and further dissemination. Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted at the data processing unit of a major US social science data archive, I investigate how these data processors work, under which status, and how they contribute to data sharing. This article presents two main results. First, it contributes to the study of invisible technicians in science by showing that the same procedures can make technical work invisible outside and visible inside the archive, to allow peer review and quality control. Second, this article contributes to the social study of scientific data sharing, by showing that the organization of data processing directly stems from the conception that the
are collected through participation, crowdsourcing, and user-data harvesting, and used
to constantly improve the mapping service. Based on this capacity, Google Maps has
now attained a scale, reach, and social role similar to the existing infrastructures that
typically organize cartographic knowledge in society. After describing Google Maps as a
configuration relying on characteristics from both platforms and infrastructures, this
article investigates what this hybrid configuration means for public participation in
spatial knowledge in society. First, this turn to infrastructure for Google has
consequences for the status of public participation in mapmaking, which switches from
creating content to providing database maintenance activities. Second, if Google Maps
opens up cartography to participation, it simultaneously recentralizes this participatory
knowledge to serve its corporate interests. In this hybrid configuration, cartographic
knowledge is therefore simultaneously more participatory and more enclosed.
Two theoretical approaches have recently emerged to characterize new digital objects of study in the media landscape: infrastructure studies and platform studies. Despite their separate origins and different features, we demonstrate in this article how the cross-articulation of these two perspectives improves our understanding of current digital media. We use case studies of the Open Web, Facebook, and Google to demonstrate that infrastructure studies provides a valuable approach to the evolution of shared, widely accessible systems and services of the type often provided or regulated by governments in the public interest. On the other hand, platform studies captures how communication and expression are both enabled and constrained by new digital systems and new media. In these environments, platform-based services acquire characteristics of infrastructure, while both new and existing infrastructures are built or reorganized on the logic of platforms. We conclude by underlining the potential of this combined framework for future case studies.
extracted and republished data from official websites. Second, participation as data aggregation, where maps were used to display and compare radiation measurements from official or crowdsourced venues. The conclusion will highlight the necessity to study how online platforms assign a place and temporality to online participation.
The course presents key readings in media & communications and sciences & technology studies to analyse contemporary instances of digital media platforms. Students will explore the multiple facets of the increasing power of digital platforms, by critically analysing how platforms replace, conflict with, or influence existing infrastructures, and whatare the social, political and epistemological consequences of these tensions. This focus on the relations between existing and emerging media configurations will invite students to investigate how platforms constitute ubiquitous media in everyday life, and how they increasingly shape communication, knowledge production, circulation of data, online participation and mobility.
The first part of the course will introduce the theoretical framework, blending together platform studies (coming from media & communication studies, political economy, management) with infrastructure studies (coming from history, information science, sciences & technology studies). The second part illustrate these interactions through four case studies that sees tech giants taking over the existing infrastructure for global connectivity: data centers, undersea cables, telecommunications networks, and satellites. The third part addresses current social debates around the platformization of the internet infrastructure, e.g. in terms of global access to internet, tension between states and sovereignty, and governance and regulation.
At the end of the course, students will be able to critically assess the increasing the power that tech giants have over the global infrastructure for connectivity, and to discuss the challenges this process brings in terms of access to communication, knowledge and democratic life.
This course is open to any student with interests in digital culture, visual culture, human geography, critical theory, and design. No prerequisite.