A Democratic & Socially Responsible Approach to Platform Capitalism

Trebor highlights the concept of “Platform Cooperativism”. He focuses on the challenges that workers in the digital economy face and how platform cooperativism can help address them.

SS: What inspired you to create the concept of “platform cooperativism”?

TS: I have been studying digital labor, which refers to the intersection of work and the internet, since 2008. Initially, I focused on researching digital labor platforms. After five years of work, I realized that while there was a lot of sophisticated analysis, theorization, and calls for a more democratic and socially responsible approach to “platform capitalism,” there were few near-term concrete alternatives to support platform workers who were being exploited. Despite the presence of various initiatives aimed at bolstering the associational power of workers, such as innovative unions and driver alliances, these efforts ultimately failed to produce significant improvements in the treatment of workers at scale.

Given my long history of working in cooperatives, it’s not surprising that in 2014,I turned to cooperative principles when thinking about the digital economy. I suggested applying the 7 principles to digital platforms, replacing the algorithmic heart of vc-funded platforms with the core values of cooperatives. This movement has been around for over 200 years and is widespread, with over 300 million members of cooperatives in India alone.

During the early 1840s, the north of England witnessed the emergence of both cooperatives and unions, with the latter specifically evolving from guilds that had traditionally served as the primary means of organizing workers in the pre-industrial era. At that time, the first recognizable cooperative was founded by a group of 28 weavers who were determined to improve their living conditions and establish a system of democratic self-governance. They developed ground rules for their work together, which now serves also as a reference for people in the digital economy.

You asked me what inspired me to formulate the concept of platform coops. While the power of individual visions cannot be denied, achieving a transition to a new economic model today requires a collective effort of organizations working together towards a shared purpose.

SS: How can the co-op model be integrated into the digital economy?

TS: The cooperative principles developed by the Rochdale Equitable Pioneers can provide guidance to cooperatives in the digital economy. The co-op model can be integrated into the digital economy through platform cooperatives prioritizing user needs and democratic decision-making, cooperative web hosting and servers for decentralized apps and intellectual property holding entities, and blockchain technology to create data cooperatives for members to own and control their personal data. The 7 Cooperative Principles can serve as a guardrail to guide the integration of the co-op model into the digital economy. These principles are voluntary and open membership, democratic member control, member economic participation, autonomy and independence, education, training, and information, cooperation among cooperatives, and concern for community.

Platform ownership and democratic governance are crucial considerations when starting a platform cooperative. However, technologies often take too much liberty with cooperative language without understanding its meaning, leading to co-op washing. It is challenging to summarize what these principles mean for starting cooperative web-native organizations, but resources are available to help.

The ultimate aim of these efforts is to transition towards a global technological commonwealth, where communities of mutual interest cooperate in the construction of institutions of regenerative economic relations. Building relationships with municipalities is essential, but it may raise concerns for cooperative leaders emphasizing the autonomy of cooperatives. By exploring and adopting innovative solutions, platform cooperatives can break the mold surrounding what is and isn’t a cooperative– avoiding “coop washing”– and paving the way for a more democratic and equitable digital economy.

So when designers and artists and cultural producers think about starting platform co-ops, as they do, they need to consider those 7 principles.

SS: What are some of the challenges that workers in the digital economy face, and how can platform cooperativism help address them?

TS: Platform workers, including gig workers in various countries, face multiple challenges such as lack of physical safety, the erosion of social bonds, underpayment, no medical benefits, misclassification as independent contractors, algorithmic work management (the “algorithmic boss”), and reliance on black box algorithms . Such challenges are often faced by marginalized communities and migrants. While there is no one-size-fits-all solution to these issues, cooperative principles, including platform cooperativism, offer some alternative solutions.

Platform cooperatives can offer higher pay, dignity in the workplace, greater job security, better pay, and benefits for workers, as well as the opportunity to work for a company that aligns with their values. Workers are given a say in how the platform operates and share the profits, thereby addressing the power imbalances between workers and platform owners. This can lead to greater resilience among cooperatives, as workers are often friends with their colleagues. In times of crisis, they stick together and their businesses usually survive.

Cooperatives, including multi-stakeholder cooperatives, have been proven to be a haven for marginalized groups. However, philanthropic organizations and individuals often hold biases against cooperatives, suggesting that they are self-exploitative, ineffective and poorly managed. Nonetheless, workers have demonstrated that they can run complex and fast-moving digital platforms, as shown by the success of the Drivers Cooperative in New York City, which raised almost $2 million and accomplished 200,000 rides, despite competing with Uber and Lyft.

The achievements of New York City’s taxi drivers can serve as an inspiration for the approximately 60 million craftspeople in India, who could come together to create cooperative digital marketplaces to sell their goods. Designers could sell their services through collective digital platforms. Such communal labor brokerages could be of great benefit to Kudumbashree’s work, as they have been successful in empowering women through economic development. One could envision Amul applying these principles to the way they govern the data of milk farmers at scale, thereby bringing even greater benefits to them.

While cooperative principles offer one solution to the issues faced by platform workers, they are not a panacea. Other solutions include innovative unions, worker councils, driver associations, and regulation.

It is important to recognize that platform workers face not only economic challenges but also systemic racial oppression. We must address the conditions of possibility that perpetuate these tensions. By prioritizing the needs and voices of marginalized workers, we can work towards a future where platform work is dignified, safe, and empowering for all.

SS: How can platform cooperativism promote a fairer and more democratic internet?

TS: The fight for a more democratic internet involves two main discussions: worker-managed labor platforms and social media platforms. Social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook have become deeply influential in people’s everyday lives, yet users have little influence over their direction. Changes at Facebook, for instance, would require an impossible 30% of its close to 3 billion users to disagree with the change. To diversify this monopolistic landscape, platform cooperatives can be created that are democratically guided and financed, similar to public television in the United Kingdom and Germany.

Although network effects have locked in the big companies, experiments all over the world show that a different social life on the internet is possible. Mastodon has over 13,000 instances, where users can govern democratically, make decisions about features, and support each other. User-owned democratic platforms can allow users to suggest and vote on policies that affect their experience online, with juries of users studying and formulating policies for larger groups to vote on.

In the tech industry, worker organizing is gaining traction, providing workers more leverage against the vagaries of investors and founders. These experiments may not outcompete the big companies, but they highlight the lack of democracy on the Internet.

SS: What steps do you think governments and companies should take to ensure that workers in the gig economy are treated fairly and have access to benefits like healthcare and paid time off?

TS: The advent of platform capitalism underscores the importance of adopting a unique political strategy that prioritizes ethical and fair methods of societal organization, as well as introducing novel modes of opposition. The regulation of labor on digital platforms requires the establishment of standards for decent work on digital platforms based on those developed by the International Labor Organization. Platform cooperativism advocates an alternative way to organize labor mediated by platforms, characterized by collective ownership, data transparency, and a rejection of excessive workplace surveillance.

There is a growing trend towards progressive municipalism, as federal governments are seen as increasingly dysfunctional in responding to the needs of workers, particularly gig workers. Municipalities can play a role in supporting platform cooperatives, which can empower workers in the digital economy. I suggested several policy points that municipalities can implement to support platform cooperatives, including mandating government procurement policies that favor worker-owned platform cooperatives, implementing solidarity-oriented loan programs, and offering social benefits tailored to the needs of platform cooperative members. Municipalities can also provide physical spaces for platform cooperatives, offer public recognition through awards and prizes, and include platform coops in political manifestos. Beyond this, some advocates have called for changes to antitrust and competition law to shape a more level playing field for alternative business models.These policies can support platform cooperatives and platform workers, and ultimately shift power away from global monopolies towards more democratic and community-driven platforms.