Platform Cooperatives: An Organisational Model to Counteract Extractive and Exploitative Practices in the Platform Economy?

The platform economy has transformed the experiences of everyday transactions, providing convenience and choice for consumers. However, platform companies have been criticised for the exploitation of workers in the gig economy and extracting value from local communities. Drawing on three case studies, this chapter examines the potential of the cooperative organisational model to function as a barrier to extractive capitalism. Cooperatives are democratically controlled organisations that are owned and governed by their members. They espouse the values of self-help, self-responsibility, democracy, equality, equity, and solidarity (ICA, Cooperative identity, values and principles. Retrieved from https://www.ica.coop/ en/cooperatives/cooperative-identity, n.d.). Platform cooperatives are owned by their workers or service users and, therefore, do not have to meet the profit demands of external shareholders. This chapter demonstrates how platform cooperatives can enable a more democratic economy that embeds a wider distribution of ownership and benefits (Morozov E, Bria F. Rethinking the smart city: democratizing urban technology. Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung, 2018) or an economy that is “distributive by design” (Raworth K. Doughnut economics: seven ways to think like a 21st-century economist. Random House Business Books, 2017). However, we contend that cooperatives are only part of the systemic response needed to counter the social and economic injustices that have emerged within the platform economy.