Platform Cooperativism:

Abstract

This paper focalizes on the economic model of digital platforms as a new method of coordinating the production of value. We suggest that the advent of “platform capitalism” is symptomatic of a crisis of the model of the firm understood as a space separated from society and based on private ownership. This crisis appears, first, as an inadequacy of the instruments of theoretical economics to take the digital platform model into account, and subsequently as a crisis concerning the ownership of the means of production: ownership seems to be split into intellectual ownership (especially algorithms) and physical ownership of the means of production (which are the prerogative of the platform’s users/producers/consumers). This new proprietary model allows us to revisit the question of the ownership of the means of production and the governance of the firm itself. In this sense, we suggest that in the claims of platform cooperativism, the platform-firm no longer appears as a group of assets that are already owned, but as an institution in which ownership corresponds to governance. In other words, ownership is understood as an institutional arrangement intended to govern the resource itself, which allows us to fully rethink the ownership of the firm according to the model of “the philosophy of the commons.”

On the Convergence of Collaborative and Social Economy: A Quality Model for the Combined Effects

“…In collaborative social companies, there are at least three actors, the service provider, the platform, and the client [5], and quality depends simultaneously on them and their interaction [2]. None of the actors can be neglected, even more so in social collaborative companies, since these social companies operate in the context of capitalism [13], which must be competitive to be sustainable and to guarantee their long-term viability [32], for which quality is considered a key aspect [33].…”

“…However, all these benefits are overshadowed by certain aspects of the collaborative economy, such as the lack of distribution of wealth among those who produce it, precarious working conditions [12], legal and tax loopholes, poor working conditions, etc. [13]. In light of this reality, it is necessary to know if the more successful companies can actually continue their operations without reformulating their business models towards more social perspectives [7] by conjoining both the interests of users and the general interest with the application of the principles of solidarity and responsibility [14]; that is, whether it is possible for social companies and collaborative companies to converge in a company that has the best of both sides [15] and whether this collaborative-social perspective can allow for the development of quality products and services, which permit a sustainable position to be maintained over time.…”