Research articles on INFRASTRUCTURE & STANDARDS

Superplatform: A framework to analyse and regulate Google’s online ad ecosystem

Koray Caliskan, Parsons School of Design
Donald MacKenzie, University of Edinburgh
Addie McGowan, University of Salford
PUBLISHED ON: 18 Feb 2026 DOI: 10.14763/2026.1.2077

The concept of the "superplatform" presents a simple way to describe Google’s vast and complex online ad business as a dual-core system that merges market power, infrastructural dominance, and supply chain demarketisation.

Digital community supported agriculture? Exploring a cooperative platform model for fair work and governance

Anne-Pauline de Cler, Conservatoire national des arts et métiers (CNAM-CNRS)
PUBLISHED ON: 6 Feb 2026 DOI: 10.14763/2026.1.2076

Digital platforms are entering community supported agriculture. This paper explores what a cooperative model for such platforms entails for work, governance and accessibility in the solidarity economy domain.

Beyond Big Tech: how Catalan cooperatives are adopting digital tools through collective learning and commons-based principles.

A workers’ inquiry in Decentralised Autonomous Organisations: Insights and policies to align blockchain-based work with the solidarity economy

Tara Merk, French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS)/University of Paris II
Laura Lotti, Independent researcher
Nick Houde, Independent researcher
Morshed Mannan, University of Edinburgh
PUBLISHED ON: 6 Feb 2026 DOI: 10.14763/2026.1.2053

This article explores working conditions in Decentralised Autonomous Organisations (DAOs) and proposes mechanisms for DAOs to become more equitable workplaces, aligned with the solidarity economy.

Science-on-chain: How can we trust science again?

Benjamin Heurich, Institute for Applied Blockchain (IABC)
Bence Lukács, Institute for Applied Blockchain (IABC)
Lukas Weidener, UMIT Tirol - Private University for Health Sciences and Health Technology
PUBLISHED ON: 26 Jan 2026 DOI: 10.14763/2026.1.2070

A sociological analysis of the term ‘trust’ in the context of blockchain technology and science.

What does a recent decision by the European Union’s Court of Justice – ruling that IAB Europe is liable under the GDPR for a technical standard it wrote – mean for internet standard-setting organisations?

Infrastructural power: State strategies for internet control

Juan Ortiz Freuler, University of Southern California
PUBLISHED ON: 20 May 2025 DOI: 10.14763/2025.2.2009

This article explores how governments, shifting from an anti-interventionist stance and views of regulatory impossibility, are embracing an infrastructural turn through strategies that include hijacking, and localising the "points of control" of the internet.