Ouvrage collectif

Digital Platforms and the Global South

Reconfiguring Power Relations in the Cultural Industries

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Publication type ouvrage

Publication name Ouvrage collectif

Edition Routledge

Coordinator(s) / Author(s)

  • Philippe Bouquillion
  • Christine Ithurbide
  • Tristan Mattelart

Reference websites

This book addresses the issues raised by digital platforms in the Global South, with an emphasis on the cultural stakes involved. It brings together an interdisciplinary team of researchers – including political economists, socio-economists, geographers, media sociologists or anthropologists – who each explore these issues through an insightful case study at a local, national, regional or international scale. While studying the strategies of some of the main US-based Big Tech platforms or video streaming platforms towards the Global South, the chapters also consider the often-neglected active role local or regional actors play in the expansion of those Western digital players, and highlight the existence of a constellation of local or regional platforms that have emerged in Africa, Asia, Latin America or the Middle East. In addition to analysing the complex relationships of competition, collaboration or dependence between these diverse actors, this volume examines the ways in which the rise of these digital platforms has generated new forms of cultural entrepreneurship and participated in the reconfiguring of the conditions in which cultural contents are produced and circulated in the Global South.

Table of content

  • Introduction – Philippe Bouquillion, Christine Ithurbide and Tristan Mattelart
  • Chapter 1 –  US Digital Platforms in the Global South: A Critical Review of an Emerging Research Field, Tristan Mattelart 
  • Chapter 2 – The Big Five in India, Powerful Players, Philippe Bouquillion
  • Chapter 3 – Platformisation of Matchmaking: Reconfiguring Social Economies in India, Vibodh Parthasarathi and Simran Agarwal
  • Chapter 4 – Cultural Crowdfunding Platforms in Latin America: From ‘Creative’ Discourse to Entrepreneurial Strategies, Alix Bénistant and Jeremy Vachet
  • Chapter 5 – Global Platforms Weaving into the Craft Industry: Lessons from Localisation Strategies in India, Christine Ithurbide
  • Chapter 6 – From Weixin to WeChat: Analysing the Expansion Strategies of a Chinese Social Media Platform, Yuwen Zhang
  • Chapter 7 – Netflix’s First Decade of Presence in Latin America, Luis Albornoz and Fernando Krakowiak
  • Chapter 8 – Cultural Policies for the SVoD Market in Brazil: From an Attempt at Regulation to Total Deregulation, Leonardo De Marchi and Ana Atem Diamante
  • Chapter 9 – Streaming the Middle East: From Legacy Media to Digital Platforms, Joe F. Khalil and Mohamed Zayani
  • Chapter 10 – Hidden in Plain Sight: YouTube and Nollywood’s Reinvention of Minor Transnational Practices, Alessandro Jedlowski
  • Chapter 11 – What Mobile Telephony is Doing to West African Music. The ZikMali Project: A New Model of Music Distribution?, Emmanuelle Olivier
  • Chapter 12 – Chilean Fashion Influencers as Digital Labour: Unpacking the ‘Media Kit’ as a Market Device, Arturo Arriagada

Keywords