Transformation, Platforms, and Digital Vulnerabilities: proposing an approach for technology studies

Abstract

Throughout the history of computers and the Internet, terms such as digital exclusion, digital divide, or digital inclusion have been used to highlight how different groups experience these technologies from varying perspectives, benefiting more or less from their advantages. However, ownership or access alone does not reveal the complexity of technology appropriation. Beyond mere possession, it is essential to know how to use technology critically, creatively, and ethically. Within this debate, this study aims to develop an approach for observing digital transformation and digital platforms beyond a binary perspective. To achieve this, it conducts a literature review, seeking to establish this reflection based on interdisciplinary scientific literature, while considering the intellectual traditions of other fields related to vulnerability. As a result, it proposes the concept of Digital Vulnerabilities and discusses it through the establishment of natural, sociocultural, socioeconomic, geopolitical, material, and technoscientific dimensions. These dimensions serve as a starting point and a research agenda, as well as an analytical framework for different contexts of research on digital transformation, digital platforms, and platformization. The study aims to provide a suitable and multidimensional lens for technology studies, particularly from the perspective of the Global South, where Digital Vulnerabilities exhibit unique characteristics and potential for dissemination.