Project description
A scholarly analysis of social media
The emergence of social media is one of the most prominent technological advances of the last decade and one that has changed our world forever – in both good and bad ways. The social impact of today's platforms has attracted much attention from researchers. The EU-funded PLATFORM DISCOURSES project will conduct a systematic scholarly analysis of the discourses through which tech companies – from Google to Facebook and from Apple to Airbnb – seek to generate trust around their products. The project will present a critical framework to understand how tech companies not only disrupt traditional markets and transform people's practices, but also seek to reconfigure the stories through which people relate to themselves, others and their ecosystems.
Objective
This project aims to develop a critical humanities perspective on the platform society, in which the online platforms owned by major tech companies—from Google to Facebook, from Apple to Airbnb—are integrated into all domains of life. In recent years, scholars across the humanities and the social sciences have analysed the functioning of platforms and their social impact. However, there has not yet been a systematic scholarly analysis of the discourses through which tech companies seek to generate trust around their products, addressing people not only as consumers, but increasingly also as a general “public.” This angle is crucial, because tech discourses are not mere by-products of platforms themselves, but form an integrated part of the development in which tech companies present their market-driven services as neutral spaces for social interaction. Platform Discourses offers this angle on tech companies as discourse producers by employing methods of narrative, image, and discourse analysis in order to analyse the texts, images, and moving images generated by tech companies: from books to corporate blogs (e.g. Airbnb’s Citizen blog), from product presentations to billboard campaigns (e.g. Apple’s World Gallery), from manifestos to public statements (e.g. Microsoft’s call for a digital Geneva convention). The project identifies the ideological underpinnings of those materials. What are the dominant visions of individual and collective human existence tech companies develop in their discourses? How have these visions evolved over the decades? And what conceptual understandings of humanity inspire Google’s mission to “do no evil” or Facebook’s ideal of a “global community”? Answering these questions, Platform Discourses presents a critical framework to understand how tech companies not only disrupt traditional markets and transform people’s practices, but also seek to reconfigure the stories through which people relate to themselves, others, and their ecosystems.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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H2020-EU.1.1. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
ERC-STG - Starting Grant
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2019-STG
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
5037 AB Tilburg
Netherlands
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.