This is an article by Thomas Klikauer and Meg Young describing the concept of 'platform capitalism' vs 'platform cooperativism'. https://countercurrents.org/2022/04/revolutionary-platform-cooperatives/
Increasingly, societies have to put up with a new form of capitalism: platform capitalism. As a counter-model to platform capitalism, some suggest platform cooperativism. This is having the idea of cooperatives applied to platforms. Unlike the mega-corporations of platform capitalism, such as Amazon, Deliveroo, etc. platform cooperatives are democratically-owned and representatively-governed semi-business organizations that could – at least potentially – replace corporate platforms, such as Uber, Facebook, Airbnb, TaskRabbit, etc. that thrive on the exploitation of labor to make stratospheric profits for shareholders.
Some see platform cooperatives as antidotes to the corrosive effects of platform capitalism by revitalizing the global cooperative movement based on common sharing, while simultaneously not rejecting capitalism’s so-called free market. They see it as blowing fresh air into Robert Owen’s cooperative model. It is framed as a real alternative to platform capitalism.
Others see it as a radical anti-capitalist vision of an economy rejecting profit and neoliberalism’s false promise of endless growth. Perhaps a third group see platform cooperatives as a real possibility to tame platform capitalism by converting it into a democratic, fairer, sustainable, and above all, a more ethical version of capitalism. To achieve that, platform cooperativism seeks to take control over platform capitalism by utilizing the collaborative potentials of digital technologies.
03/04/2022