Cooperatives: Importance, Resilience and Rationality

Platform cooperatives and employment

“…The integration of digital technologies in economic activities has fostered new business models, such as online platforms, 12 which have brought benefits to consumers, businesses and governments by enabling easier and more efficient interactions among people, and have transformed how, where and when work is found and performed (OECD, 2019[3]). For example, in Australia, the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) supports more than 338 000 individuals, some of them through online platforms that match NDIS participants with support workers (Australia's National Disability Insurance Scheme, 2020 [4]). In particular, digital labour platforms have disrupted traditional business models and employment relationships by using a digital interface to facilitate and mediate work between clients (e.g.…”

“…Research by the Fairwork project 4 showed that in Brazil during the COVID-19 pandemic, while food delivery orders increased by 77% and demand for delivery home services spiked, delivery workers experienced difficult working conditions and lacked basic labour protections and benefits (Fairwork Project, 2020 [44]). Events such as the 2020 countrywide rider strikes brought to the fore debates around decent work in online platforms and led to the emergence of collectives of riders.…”

“…2 The cooperative movement provides the identity, values and principles that rule platform cooperatives, bringing people together to address their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through an organisation that is owned and controlled democratically by all members (International Cooperative Alliance, 1995 [31]) 3 An alternate driver is someone who drives on behalf of a car owner when they are unable to drive by themselves. 4 Fairwork is a project based at the Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford and the WZB Berlin Social Science Center, financed by the German Development Agency (GIZ), commissioned by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). The project also received funding from ESRC/GCRF, the ERC, Ox-Ber and the Ford Foundation, among others.…”

“…3 The JRC-COLLEEM (for COLLaborative Economy and Employment) survey is an online panel survey that collected 38 878 responses from frequent internet users aged 16-74 years old. The survey was conducted in 2017 and 2018 across Croatia, the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Slovakia and the United Kingdom 4. In the framework of this paper, and as widely used by academia and in practice, the terms "platform…”