We examine the reconfiguration of local passenger transport markets by digital
platforms regarding the question of whether new market players can enforce ideas about market governance. We apply a field theoretical approach based on Pierre Bourdieu which takes endogenous and exogenous forces in struggles for field governance into account, attending to symbolic and material power
resources as well as to field-specific and historically embedded practices and under-
standings. Empirically, we conduct a comparison of the car-based passenger transport
sector in Vienna (Austria) and Berlin (Germany). We find that the market entry of digital
platforms such as Uber did not completely disrupt the local markets, but there were
differences in the extent to which platforms were integrated into existing governance
systems. While platforms were included into the taxi industry regulations in Austria/Vienna, Germany decided to retain a difference between rental cars and taxis, manifesting ongong contestations and spurring further the precarity of taxi drivers, particularly in Berlin where regulations are weakly enforced.
We explain these results by differences in the interacting local associative, political-administrative and legal fields and the symbolic conflicts around the meaning and function of digital platforms and taxi markets in the multiscalar field of power.