ABSTRACT
We focus here on the production of ‘platform-mediated public spaces’ in contemporary Vietnam with the growing uses of digital applications. We address how platformisation challenges the practices of citizenship. We especially question the possibility of setting up collective organisations in the ‘platform-mediated city’ and consider access to public spaces. We develop our argument by investigating the reorganisation of the motorbike taxi sector with the arrival of Grab. We offer a grounded perspective to show how precarious drivers use the app to organise themselves in unprecedented ways and recast their performance of citizenship in the face of two forms of power: the authoritarian Vietnamese state and the private (international) platform. Our research contributes to theoretical debates about citizenship and political subjectivities in the digital age.
