Journal of Co-operative Studies, 58(3), 79-89

Abstract

Platform co-operativism is emerging as a viable response to the challenges advanced by the gig economy, which proposes a model based on self-entrepreneurialism, exploitative automation, and the extraction and accumulation of data through digital interactions. In contrast, the platform co-operative movement envisions alternative digital futures rooted in the co-design and collective governance of technologies. This article looks at the platform co-operative movement through the lens of the diverse and community economies framework, drawing on comparative research in Bologna (Italy) and Barcelona (Spain). The article argues that this emerging movement proposes tangible practices to take back technology and to reshape the dominant narrative around digital labour. In this reimagined model, digital technologies are not tools for exploitation, but instruments that can enhance both service provision and workers’ wellbeing. By exploring the transformation of the co-operative movement in digitally mediated cities, this article contributes to an ontology of economic difference and opens up to new imaginaries for alternative digital futures. The analysis is grounded in sixteen months of ethnographic research, employing qualitative methods to examine the everyday practices of two platform co-operatives.

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