Javier González de Rivera
Social researcher and teacher at University of Vigo
Social researcher and teacher at University of Vigo
My previous research focused on the critical study of the Collaborative Economy. From a sociological perspective, I analyze online platforms as digital institutions in which users develop new subjectivities, shaped by the norms and values inscribed in the platforms' designs. I am broadly interested in how performativity of digital technologies facilitates the production of new social realities and social relations. My work has also looked at how corporate platforms (ie. Alphabet or Facebook) mobilize technological affordances and possibilities to achieve prominent roles in contemporary social and economic configurations, as global institutions enabling enhanced forms of capitalism. However, the theoretical and methodological approach behind this analysis -the study of digital institutions- is appliable in the inverse way, toward the development of more egalitarian and sustainable social dynamics, as those that are needed for the achievement of a post-growth society. That is what I pursue at Prospera Post-Growth Innovation Lab. I am also a member of Cibersomosaguas - Digital Culture and Social Movementsresearch group, and of the editorial board of the journal Teknokultura, both at University Complutense de Madrid.