Using digital technology to liberate workers: the promise of Platform Cooperativism

What if taxi drivers were in charge of their own digital platform? At a time when there are so few concrete, near-term solutions to the power of large technology companies, the crisis in the care sector, and threats to democracy, Platform Cooperatives offer an urgent and practical solution to change how businesses are owned and controlled.

In Own This researcher and activist Trebor Scholz provides valuable insights into this global digital uprising, powered by democratic ownership and shared decision-making.

Scholz will take you to the south of India, where a digital cooperative of farmers brings their harvest directly to market; to New York City, where a worker-owned and operated alternative to Uber is transforming piece-rate gig economy precarity into good jobs with stable hourly wages; to Belgium, where artists benefit from the payroll and tax services of a platform cooperative; and to Italy, where a short-term rental platform shares half of its profits with the communities in which it operates.

R. Trebor Scholz is a scholar-activist and founding director of the Platform Cooperativism Consortium (PCC) and the Institute for the Cooperative Digital Economy at The New School in New York City. In 2014, he introduced the concept of “platform cooperativism” as a way of bringing the co-op model into the digital economy. Scholz’s articles and ideas have appeared in The Nation, The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Washington Post, Le Monde, and The New York Times, among many other publications.