Navigating the empty shell: the role of articulation
work in platform structures

Navigating the empty shell: the role of articulation
work in platform structures

platform studies, articulation work, telehealth, mental and behavioral health, scale

This article explores platform workers’ strategies for producing sustainable, quality services within platform structures that simultaneously over-
and under-determine their work. We present findings from interviews with U.S.-based mental health professionals (n 1⁄4 48) working on telether-
apy platforms. These therapists describe navigating both the presence of platformic controls and the absence of features supporting professional

best practices and regulatory requirements. We describe this absence as the “empty shell” characteristic of platforms and argue that it is a cen-
tral technique through which platforms create scale. Our findings detail the communicative strategies therapists employ to navigate the empty

shell and provide quality care to their clients. These strategies can be seen as a form of “articulation work,” a concept drawn from the sociology
of work. Attending to articulation work in an emerging platform labor context, such as teletherapy, contributes to our understanding of the politics
of platforms.

Linda Huber 1,*, Casey Pierce1

https://doi.org/10.1093/jcmc/zmad004

Accepted: 27 February 2023

PERI IRAWAN

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