Platform Cooperativism Research Articles

Directing innovation through confrontation and democratisation: the case of platform cooperativism

ABSTRACT Technological innovation can serve a multitude of conflicting and diverse interests, often reflecting prevailing worldviews and ideologies. This article focuses on the shaping of innovation directionality in the context of digital platform capitalism, which has emerged as a powerful innovation paradigm. Simultaneously, digital platforms have sparked significant concerns regarding labour rights, economic inequalities, and injustices. We investigate the strategies of resistance, appropriation, and re-direction of digital platform technology in the case of CoopCycle, a food delivery riders’ platform cooperative. The case consists of a digital platform co-owned and governed by a federation of 70 rider cooperatives worldwide. The case study reveals that, under certain conditions, existing and well-established innovation pathways might be steered in different and more responsible directions through contestation and experimentation driven by social demands for equality, democracy and participation.

Mixbiotic society measures: Assessment of community well-going as living system.

Social isolation and fragmentation represent global challenges, with the former stemming from a lack of interaction and the latter from exclusive mobs-both rooted in communication issues. Addressing these challenges, the philosophical realm introduces the concept of the "mixbiotic society." In this framework, individuals with diverse freedoms and values mix together in physical proximity with diverse mingling, recognizing their respective "fundamental incapacities" and uniting in solidarity. This study aims to provide novel measures to balance freedom and solidarity, specifically the intermediate between isolation and mobbing, within a mixbiotic society. To achieve this, we introduce simplified measures to evaluate dynamic communication patterns. These measures complement traditional social network analysis of static structures and conventional entropy-based assessments of dynamic patterns. Our specific hypothesis posits that the measures corresponding to four distinct phases are established by representing communication patterns as multidimensional vectors. These measures include the mean of Euclidean distance to quantify "mobism" for fragmentation, the relative distance change for "atomism" indicating isolation, and a composite measure derived from multiplying the mean and variance of cosine similarity for "mixism," reflecting the well-going state of a mixbiotic society. Additionally, nearly negligible measures correspond to "nihilism." Through the evaluation of seven real-society datasets (high school, primary school, workplace, village, conference, online community, and email), we demonstrate the utility of the "mixism" measure in assessing freedom and solidarity in society. These measures can be employed to typify communities on a radar chart and a communication trajectory graph. The superiority of the measures lies in their ability to evaluate dynamic patterns, ease of calculation, and easily interpretable meanings compared to conventional analyses. As a future development, alongside additional validation using diverse datasets, the mixbiotic society measures will be employed to analyze social issues and applied in the fields of digital democracy and platform cooperativism.

Towards cyber-cooperatives: Studying the sharing economy of the tourism industry through an evolutionary approach to organizational cybernetics

Purpose: The lodging industry is transitioning to the online collaborative economy, with digital platforms mediating between hosts and guests. However, this has created significant inequalities between the platform management and the service providers. Objective. The paper proposes (a) to contribute to organisational cybernetics through evolutionary theory, (b) to analyse the emergence of platform cooperativism, and (c) to propose a platform cooperative based on the VSM, which we have called a cyber-cooperative. Design: Applying cybernetic evolutionary epistemology and the VSM, the article analyses the current state of the platform lodging industry and proposes the core characteristics of the cyber-cooperative. Findings: The article finds: a) it contributes to the theory of viable systems by integrating evolutionary theory; b) it uses the proposed theory to explain the developments in the collaborative economy of the lodging industry; c) it relates meme theory with the identity of the system and identifies the political ideas in cooperative organisations; d) it proposes the idea of the cyber-cooperative for developing the lodging industry. Originality: Evolutionary epistemology in organisational cybernetics, and the politics of identity in cooperativism are both novel approaches in the VSM. Type of paper: Research paper.

Image-based sexual violence and imperfect victims: the case for platform cooperativism in the online sex industry

ABSTRACT There is growing need for greater empirical understanding of the data violence experienced by online sex workers. Popular discourse about image-based sexual violence (IBSV), or ‘revenge porn’, often fails to identify the widespread proliferation of this practice within sexual services. This occurs as both consumers and adult-services platforms surreptitiously record and post performances on porn sites without consent, which can have severe implications for workers’ mental and social well-being. First, I apply a workerist lens to the neoliberal sexual agenda, which governs the (in)visibility and (un)freedom of online performers (OPs) across a variety of institutional settings. This exposes how top-down ideological power relations disappears OPs from legislative approaches to IBSV. Second, I show how IBSV emulates the tendencies of the platform business model, such as data appropriation and surveillance. I conclude with solutions including protections based in technology and human rights law, alongside platform cooperative development within a wider decriminalization framework.

An alternative organizational model for a more democratic and equitable digital economy: A systematic literature review on platform cooperativism through the lens of stakeholder theory. Competitive advantages and challenges

AbstractPlatform cooperatives, namely, businesses that sell goods or services primarily through a website, mobile app, or protocol and commit to the principles of democratic governance and shared ownership, have lately been proposed as a more sustainable, equitable and, under certain conditions, even efficient alternative to the organizational model of commercial platforms. Accordingly, they have been presented as economic institutions capable of involving all their relevant stakeholders in an extended and inclusive governance structure. Nevertheless, this emerging literature is still characterized by the lack of a holistic and analytic framework connecting the dispersed studies on the topic through the lens of stakeholder theory and detailing strategic complementarities between these different stakeholders. Related to this point, while dealing with the competitive advantages and challenges of platform cooperatives, little reference has been made to the existing debate in governance theory about the advantages and challenges of cooperative firms as compared to capitalist ones. These research gaps motivated our literature review, which is the first comprehensive systematic review specifically focused on this topic. Given the still‐emerging character of the research object, our work also makes way for future updates as new contributions are gradually published.

Platform cooperativism as an alternative to post-Covid-19 economic development: evidence from Brazil

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly transformed the world’s population by accelerating social, economic, market, and technological changes. In this context, the sharing economy has promoted alternative business models that transcend traditional capitalism in a digital movement disseminated by individuals, communities, and platforms that bring organizations, consumers, and providers together. Our study aims to identify and map how digital platforms based on cooperative principles can develop the sharing economy. We developed exploratory qualitative research while using netnography as a methodological procedure. First, we discuss the sharing economy based on digital platforms that foster cooperation. Second, we describe how platform cooperativism can be an alternative to the individualistic ethos of the sharing economy. Finally, we discuss alternatives with social and economic impacts to solve employment and income problems after the Covid-19 pandemic. The research contributes to the various initiatives and cooperative applications emerging in a developing country.

Platform cooperativism for the Uberworked

Platform cooperativism for the Uberworked

Platform cooperativism and freedom as non-domination in the gig economy

While the challenges workers face in the gig economy are now well-known, reflections on emancipatory solutions in political philosophy are still underdeveloped. Some have pleaded for enhancing workers’ bargaining power through unionisation; others for enhancing exit options in the labour market. Both strategies, however, come with unintended side-effects and do not exhaust the full potential for worker self-government present in the digital gig economy. Using the republican theory of freedom as non-domination, I argue that G.D.H. Cole's 20th-century defence of guild socialism offers a promising avenue for enhancing worker autonomy in the gig economy. Platform companies rely on relational and structural domination to undermine worker autonomy, but Cole's guild socialism was specifically designed to enhance autonomy in the workplace. Following Cole's advice today would amount to a defence of worker-owned cooperative platforms. By putting workers in control of platform design and governance, cooperative platforms create new opportunities for worker autonomy. However, platform cooperativism faces serious challenges if it plans on becoming a realistic alternative to the traditional gig economy.

The Transformative Potential of Platform Cooperativism: The Case of CoopCycle

The paper sets out to dissolve a contrast between traditional coop sectoral enclosure, on the one hand, and platform coop diversity, on the other hand, which often resonates with precariousness, marginalisation, fragmentation, whitewashing and corporatisation. To tackle traditional and platform coop discordance, the paper draws on the model of open cooperativism introduced by Vasilis Kostakis and Michel Bauwens, passed through the lens of Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe’s discourse theory of hegemony, to weave a narrative that seeks to unite and broaden the scope of the cooperative sector. In doing so, the paper reviews CoopCycle as an illustrative case study of platform cooperativism. CoopCycle is a global federation of bike delivery coops that deploy the digital commons to install workplace democracy in the bike delivery sector. The paper aims at contributing to the understanding of platform cooperativism, all the while embedding the model of platform cooperativism into the counter-hegemony of open cooperativism aiming to challenge the current hegemony of neoliberalism. The main argument here is that the model of open cooperativism bears comparative advantages vis-à-vis closed proprietary socio-economic models.

David against Goliath: from riders’ protest to platform cooperativism

AbstractFaced with platforms such as Uber, riders are resisting individually and organising actions such as Riders X Derechos in Spain. Some of these ‘new proletarians’ have even organised themselves into cooperatives. To the global utopia of investor-owned platforms, platform cooperativism opposes the utopia of delivery without exploitation or carbon emissions through local cooperatives owned by riders. Based on the case study of the Mensakas cooperative in Barcelona, this ethnography analyses the link between riders’ protests and cooperative platforms. It questions the concrete effects of ‘counter-platform politics’ and the relationship between politics and labour. It also examines the strategies of intercooperation in the ‘cyclelogistical’ sector to understand the institutional, social, and political conditions that foster the ‘re-embeddedness’ of the bike delivery market.

Not just platform, nor cooperatives: worker-owned technologies from below

Abstract This article theorizes about how platform cooperativism is landing in Brazil, challenging dominant notions and presenting a more diverse meaning of worker-owned technologies from below. Drawing on research with platform co-ops under construction in Brazil, the article argues that, in Brazil, platform cooperativism does not necessarily present itself as either a cooperative or a platform. They are prototypes and experiments of worker-owned technologies anchored in local communities and their values. Instead of all these experiences being condensed and captured from Global North epistemic frameworks, there is the production of knowledge by the workers in search of autonomy. The article analyzes potentialities and critiques of platform cooperativism, especially from three dimensions of critique (economics, politics, and technology). It presents perspectives towards diversifying and expanding the meanings of technology in/from Latin America for understanding worker-owned technologies. It discusses two examples of worker-owned technologies: Senoritas Courier and the Homeless Worker Movement.

Socio-Labour Inclusion of Low-Income Women in the Digital Economy: A Comparison between Corporate and Cooperative Domestic Work Platforms

It is often argued that digital labour platforms entail an expansion of opportunities for women for several reasons. They facilitate the balance between paid work and household chores as a result of time flexibility, they eliminate entry and permanence barriers for typically male work sectors, they enable economic independence, and they favour the creation of professional networks. Several studies, however, have shown that the wage gap, the sexual division of labour, occupational segregation, and gender stereotypes still persist. Hence, to what extent do the new forms of labour mediated by digital platforms lead to an expansion of opportunities for women? This article analyses the socio-labour inclusion of low-income women in digital labour platforms by contrasting the model of corporate platforms against the emerging alternative of platform cooperatives. The movement of platform cooperativism advocates for the creation of platform companies based on democratic ownership and governance models that reduce inequalities in a broad sense. The methodological approach is based on the comparison of two platforms: Zolvers, which was founded in 2013 with headquarters in Argentina and which operates as an intermediary or marketplace between those who offer and those who require home cleaning services, and Up & Go, which was founded in 2017 in New York and is owned by six worker cooperatives that use the platform to offer various services on demand, particularly home cleaning services. Whereas Zolvers offers job opportunities with possibilities of formalisation but no guarantee of stability, Up & Go is owned and managed by worker cooperatives that seek to guarantee living wages for their worker-members. Concerning working conditions, Zolvers reproduces power asymmetries of domestic work, subordinating workers to the platform and the hirers. On the contrary, Up & Go empowers women workers to decide on their schedules and hirers, among other issues. Finally, whereas Zolvers does not enable the participation of workers either in governance or in technology design, the cooperative nature of Up & Go promotes their involvement.

ADAPTABILITY OF PLATFORM COOPERATIVISM IN THE MALAYSIAN E-HAILING SECTOR: A CONCEPTUAL STUDY

Malaysia’s taxi sector is beginning to question platform capitalism. Penyatuan Pemain Industri Pengangkutan Darat Malaysia (PPDM) has called for the creation of a new government-led platform to replace the online platform companies that have exhausted the taxi industry ecosystem. However, discussions with the Malaysian Government remain parallel. This article uses the theoretical concept of platform cooperativism to explore its adaptability and the potential for transformation from platform capitalism in the Malaysian e-hailing sector. Through the development of the conceptual framework, a commons-based democratic management governance system based on platform cooperativism is developed to move away from platform capitalism, which is a corporate-driven profit-making and management structure. Four key elements for the proper management of platform cooperativism: governance, economy, technology and society can be fully adapted to the demands of PPDM by transforming them from the private sector. Consequently, the realisation of platform cooperativism has the potential to manage the Malaysian e-hailing platform as a shared asset for users and to enable the circulation of benefits within the community.Keywords: : platform cooperativism, gig economy, sharing economy, e-hailing, taxi industry

When coops are not on the menu: why immigrant platform delivery workers in New York city rejected a cooperative alternative

Many debate the potential of platform cooperativism for gig workers. This paper presents two case studies of two organizations in NYC servicing Latinx immigrants, one who chose to form a cooperatively-owned platform (Center for Family Life) and one who ultimately rejected the idea (Los Deliveristas Unidos). Historical challenges to coop formation are considered for immigrant workers and a new challenge of social movement orientation is advanced.

TURNING PLATFORM WORKERS INTO OWNERS: ESOP-TYPE BUYOUTS OF LABOUR-BASED PLATFORMS

Platform work is often characterised by economic insecurity, dehumanising control procedures, isolation, deepening racial, economic and gender inequalities, and other socio-economic problems. There are lively debates underway concerned with how to regulate or limit the negative effects of platform capitalism. This article reviews two of the most common calls for action – regulation and platform co-operatives. We argue that there is also an unexplored, complementary option, which uses the network effects of platforms to provide greater benefits for platform workers. To understand this alternative, we introduce the American Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) mechanism for employee buyouts, redefine the model according to the main cooperative values, and apply it to the platform economy. We conclude that there is a third option is available to governments and municipalities, namely to require an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) in the local subsidiary of the platform company. Keywords: Platform economy, platform co-operativism, employee buyouts, platform ESOP

Gendering platform co-operativism: the rise of women-owned rider co-operatives in Brazil and Spain

ABSTRACT This article analyses the process of gendering platform co-operativism through a case study of two rider co-operatives owned and managed by women: Señoritas Courier in São Paulo, Brazil and Les Mercedes in Barcelona, Spain. While both co-operatives arose in response to similar concerns and have adopted a common approach, one is located in the global South, while the other is in the global North. This allows for a comparison of how prefigurative politics have shaped the terms of platform co-operativism, as well as an analysis of the transnational character of worker struggle. The article is particularly interested in: What was the impetus for the formation of the two women-owned platform co-operatives? How have the co-operatives sought to redefine the relationship between gender, work, and technologies? The paper argues that the expansion of women-owned platform co-operatives constitutes an opportunity to advance a more inclusive, feminist digital economy. Members see co-operatives as an important dimension of collective organisation and the articulation between paid and unpaid care work. Both co-operatives strive to create a safe environment which provides support in work and motherhood. However, platform co-operatives have struggled to expand amidst a highly competitive market. The article concludes with a discussion on the need for public policies that can support platform co-operativism among women delivery workers.

Gendered precarious employment in China's gig economy: exploring women gig drivers’ intersectional vulnerabilities and resistances

ABSTRACT The article offers a timely study of the gendered experience of gig work in China and prioritises the nexus of an intersectional feminist approach to explore women workers’ situated problematics and precarious employment in ride-hailing platforms. Drawing on ‘chatnography’, conducted over a period of 17 months and semi-structured interviews with 30 women platform drivers, this article makes two important contributions to the robust scholarship of gender and precarious work in the gig economy. First, this research argues that gendered precarious work relations are still prevalent in China's on-demand economy, especially in male-dominated ride-hailing platforms. The patriarchal gender norms and oppressive work relations perpetuate gender inequality and women's oppression. On the one hand, women platform drivers experience gender discrimination from passengers, netizens and followers, male platform drivers, and algorithms. On the other hand, women platform drivers are subject to risks and women's health problems. Second, this study highlights women platform workers’ intersectional vulnerabilities and their resistance to precarious employment and argues that working-class, migrant, and single mothers are in the most perilous situation. This article proposes that platform co-operatives are an alternative organisation of the gig economy, which creates gender-egalitarian, democratic working conditions for platform workers, especially marginalised women workers, and calls for support, actions, and funding for platform co-operativism from international and local agencies, grassroots organisations, governments, universities, co-operatives, and active consumers.

Beyond platform cooperativism

This forum focuses on the conditions and futures of the labor underpinning technology production and maintenance. We welcome standalone articles as well as interviews and conversations about all tech labor within the global supply chain of digital technologies. --- Seyram Avle and Sarah Fox, Editors

Re-thinking Academic Publishing: The Promise of Platform Cooperativism

Re-thinking Academic Publishing: The Promise of Platform Cooperativism

Platform Capitalism, Platform Cooperativism, and the Commons

This essay explores the potential for transitioning from platform capitalism to a commons-oriented postcapitalist ethical economy. Platform capitalism is an “updated” version of capitalism advanced by online software platforms. Trebor Scholz juxtaposes platform cooperativism with platform capitalism, aiming to outdo the latter by means of communal ownership, democratic governance, and the equitable distribution of value. Bauwens and Kostakis criticize platform cooperativism as insufficient insofar as it operates under a closed copyright system. They argue instead for incorporating platform cooperativism into a broader model of open cooperativism, premised on the principles of commons-based peer production. The essay concludes with a critical appraisal of Bauwens and Kostakis’s model of open cooperativism.