OII | Dr Arturo Arriagada

Profile Contents

About
Positions at the OII
Contact
Research

About

Dr Arturo Arriagada is an Associate Professor of Digital Culture and Creative Labor at the School of Communications and Journalism, Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez (UAI) in Chile, and a Research Associate at the Oxford Internet Institute. His research examines how technological change — particularly digital platforms and artificial intelligence — is reshaping creative work, cultural production, and regimes of value, with a focus on Latin America. His current project, funded by Chile’s National Agency for Research and Development (ANID, 2026–2030), explores creative labour in the era of generative AI in Chile’s music, video game, media, and audiovisual industries (with Matías Valderrama). He is also part of Global Perspectives on GenAI and Cultural Production (with Thomas Poell, Lorena Caminhas, David Nieborg, Smith Mehta, and Zhen Ye), which investigates how GenAI technologies are being integrated into cultural industries around the globe.

Beyond academia, his research informs public policy and international organisations: he authored UNESCO’s report on influencers in Latin America (2025) and contributed to the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI) report on algorithmic transparency in the public sector (2024). His work has been published in journals including the Journal of Communication, International Journal of Cultural Studies, Journal of Cultural Economy, Big Data & Society, and Social Media + Society.

Research Interests

Platform work; gig economy; creative industries; cultural production; influencers and the creator economy; AI and creative labour; digital methods; qualitative methods.

Positions at the OII

Research Associate, June 2026 -

Contact

arturo.arriagada@uai.cl

www.uai.cl/profesores/comunicaciones/arturo-arriagada

Google Scholar

Research

Publications

Notable Publications

Journal articles

Arriagada, A., Siles, I. and Cifuentes, M. (2026) “Dealing with Risk on Mercado Libre: The Venture Labor of Latin American Third-Party Sellers”, Platforms & Society. https://doi.org/10.1177/29768624251414542
Wilson, A. and Arriagada, A. (2026) “Dual Professional Life: Professionals Embracing Content Creation in Chile’s Digital Economy”, European Journal of Cultural Studies. (In press)
Arriagada, A. and Cotoras, D. (2025) “Introducing a Predictive Experiment: Ethics, Data and Public Defence in Chile”, Big Data & Society, 12(4). https://doi.org/10.1177/20539517251407984
Arriagada, A. and Valderrama, M. (2025) “Making Social Media Influence Calculable: Influencer Marketing Agencies, Algorithmic Systems, and Platform Metrics”, Journal of Cultural Economy, 19(1), 101–117. https://doi.org/10.1080/17530350.2025.2559312
Arriagada, A. and Craig, D. (2025) “Living My Latin American Influencer Dream: How Racism and Nationality Shape Latin American Influencers within the US”, International Journal of Cultural Studies, 28(1), 168–184. https://doi.org/10.1177/13678779241268138
Bonhomme, M., Ustek-Spilda, F. and Arriagada, A. (2025) “Between Acceptance and Resistance: Conceptualising Migrant Platform Labour Agency in Chile”, New Technology, Work and Employment, 40, 195–213. https://doi.org/10.1111/ntwe.12308
Poell, T., Duffy, B. E., Nieborg, D. B., Mutsvairo, B., Tse, T., Arriagada, A., de Kloet, J. and Sun, P. (2024) “Global Perspectives on Platforms and Cultural Production”, International Journal of Cultural Studies. https://doi.org/10.1177/13678779241292736
Arriagada, A. and Siles, I. (2024) “The Mutual Configuration of Affordances and Technological Frames: Content Creators in the Chilean Influencer Industry”, Convergence, 30(1), 572–587. https://doi.org/10.1177/13548565231157364
Siles, I., Valerio-Alfaro, L. and Arriagada, A. (2024) “‘Music Is Just Right There on Social Media!’: Discovering, Exploring, and Incorporating Songs Across Platforms”, International Journal of Communication, 18. https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/22672
Arriagada, A., Bonhomme, M., Leyton, J. and Ibáñez, F. (2023) “The Gig Economy in Chile: Examining Labour Conditions and the Nature of Gig Work in a Global South Country”, Digital Geography and Society, 5. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.diggeo.2023.100063
Arriagada, A. and Bishop, S. (2021) “Between Commerciality and Authenticity: The Imaginary of Social Media Influencers in the Platform Economy”, Communication, Culture & Critique, 14(4), 568–586. https://doi.org/10.1093/ccc/tcab050
Arriagada, A. and Ibáñez, F. (2020) “‘You Need At Least One Picture Daily, if Not, You’re Dead’: Content Creators and Platform Evolution in the Social Media Ecology”, Social Media + Society. https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305120944624

Chapters

Arriagada, A. (2026) “Tastemakers of the Platform Age: The Cultural and Economic Work of Social Media Influencers”. In: Borchers, N. S., Wellman, M. L. and Hudders, L. (eds.) Routledge Companion to Social Media Influencers. Routledge.
Arriagada, A. and Wilson, K. (2026) “Creators at Work: Navigating Dual Careers in the Chilean Platform Economy”. In: Bidav, T. and Metha, S. (eds.) Digital Platforms in the Global South. (Forthcoming)
Arriagada, A. and Richter, V. (2025) “Exploring Imaginaries on Digital Labour”. In: Bulut, E., Chen, J., Grohmann, R. and Jarrett, K. (eds.) SAGE Handbook of Digital Labour. Sage. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781036204495.n52
Arriagada, A. (2023) “Chilean Fashion Influencers as Digital Labour: Unpacking the ‘Media Kit’ as a Market Device”. In: Ithurbide, C., Mattelart, T. and Bouquillion, P. (eds.) Digital Platforms in the Global South. Routledge, 215–231. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003391746-12
Arriagada, A. and Lavín, M. (2021) “Social Media in Chile’s Indie Music Scene: Crossing Local and Global Boundaries”. In: Ballico, C. (ed.) Geographically Isolated and Peripheral Music Scenes: Global Insights and Perspectives. Palgrave, 97–116.
Arriagada, A. (2021) “Branding Daily Life: Fashion Influencers as Market Actors in the Social Media Economy”. In: Paulicelli, E., Manlow, V. and Wissinger, E. (eds.) The Routledge Companion to Fashion Studies. Routledge, 359–373.
Arriagada, A. (2021) “Content Creators and the Field of Advertising”. In: Craig, D. and Cunningham, S. (eds.) Creator Culture: An Introduction to Global Social Media Entertainment. NYU Press, 232–249. https://doi.org/10.18574/9781479890118-014

Reports (selected)

Arriagada, A. (2025) Influencers in Latin America: Content Creation, Ethical Dilemmas, and Social Challenges. Communication and Information Discussion Papers (33). Montevideo: UNESCO. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000396106_eng
Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI) (2024) Algorithmic Transparency in the Public Sector: Case Studies of Repositories of Public Algorithms in Chile, the EU and the UK. (Contributing expert) https://wp.oecd.ai/app/uploads/2024/12/16-Algorithmic-Transparency-in-the-Public-Sector-Recommendations-for-Governments-to-Enhance-the-Transparency-of-Public-Algorithms.pdf