A Critical Perspective on the Increasing Power of Digital Platforms Through the Lens of Conjunctural Geographies

Drawing on expert interviews and bridging the disciplinary divide between retail studies, economic geography, and platform literature, this chapter critically assesses the changing role of digital platforms such as Amazon as market makers and gatekeepers in the retailing sector. To discuss digital platforms’ increasing power, this chapter uses the lens of “conjunctural geographies”, where digital platforms simultaneously embed and disembed themselves from the space-times they intermediate. Using a strategic deployment of conjunctural geographies, they continue to permanently shape the retail landscape on a large scale, operating rather detached from retailers involved, therewith avoiding accountabilities. Yet, the study expands the understanding of conjunctural geographies by arguing that digital platforms intentionally wish to embed temporarily. They do so on an allegedly more local level in order to increase their reach and their legitimacy, using inter alia institutions, municipalities, and agencies as intermediaries who act more or less on behalf of the platform.