Postponed Urban Transformation in the Platform Era: From Promises Disruption to Everyday Adaptations

This article addresses a specific gap on technological urbanism: whereas earlier industrial revolutions (Industry 1.0-3.0) reconfigured cities through fixed, site-bound infrastructures - a space of place - Industry 4.0 increasingly operates through digital infrastructures - a space of flows - whose concrete urban impacts remain underspecified. We ask how far this flow-based mode reproduces or departs from the socio-spatial transformations observed in earlier, place-based regimes. Using a Systemic Literature Review we code evidence across spatial practices, territorial regulation, and everyday life. Findings temper claims of pronounced transformation: platform ecosystems in Industry 4.0 have not yet generated large-scale socio-spatial restructuring; instead, they yield incremental adaptations - curb and frontage reprogramming, logistics micro-interfaces, and regulatory fine-tuning - layered onto inherited fabrics. We therefore advance the mechanism of postponed urban transformation: under present technological and institutional conditions, platformisation tends to defer - rather than deliver - transformational change, while still re-articulating everyday practices and governance.