Constitution et exploitation du capital communautaire

• Main Author: Mathieu Cocq
• Format: Article
• Language: fra
• Published: La Nouvelle Revue du Travail 2018-10-01
• Series: La Nouvelle Revue du Travail
• Subjects: community; streaming; platform; reputation; Twitch
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/nrt/3911

The digital economy and ensuing rise in platforms has led to the emergence of new forms of work and employment. The article analyses the Twitch streaming platform, where video game players record and stream their own games while interacting directly with their audience. Millions of gamers use the platform but few earn a regular income from it. By describing the platforms, streamers’ trajectories and the nature of their activity, it becomes possible to demonstrate that one key characteristic of this activity is the constitution and valuation of what might be referred to as “communitarian capital”, meaning the commoditisiation of the proximity relationship that exists between streamers and spectators. Analysis of the market devices that the platform controls – along with the nature of streamers’ income - reveals how the platform itself frames and exploits this communitarian capital.