The Digital Platforms Observatory (DPO) seeks to collaborate in the understanding of the phenomenon of banalization of digital platforms and the digitalization of society and territory. It aims to understand in a transdisciplinary way the new socio-spatial relations that are being established in different domains of collective life, such as space, economy, culture, collective and mental health, communication, education, among others. Beyond the particular collaborations provided by each disciplinary area, there is a convergent issue: technology and information as new forms of social realization in the current historical period.

The main focus of the project is the private transportation and delivery companies that are leading the so-called “uberization”. This theme is the subject of an agreement signed between the MPT (Ministério Público do Trabalho) of the 3rd Region and UFMG (Agreement No. 078/19-00). These corporations, most of them global, assume new hegemonies as they define the standards of the technical and computer systems used. Thus, they condition habits, by reaching a gigantic number of places, users, and consumers, bringing up new geopolitical themes that still need to be known, studied, and debated.

Site: https://continenteufmg.com/observatorio