Re-embedding the economy within digitalized foundational sectors: the case of platform cooperativism

Activists and scholars are proposing the idea of platform cooperativism as a way to democratize the governance of extractive platforms of digital capitalism. Platform Cooperativism resumes the idea of the cooperative model, adapting it to the new challenges of digital technology with a participatory governance model based on a multistakeholder approach, redistributing to the community part of the value generated through collateral social projects. The chapter aims to compare capitalist platforms with cooperative platforms in two foundational sectors (transport and welfare). Platforms coops are characterized not only by localism, but also by their desire to scale differently from the capitalist model (scale deep instead of scale up), through partnerships with other operators and through alternative financial tools (impact investing and patient capital). While the transport sector was a forerunner in trialling digital platforms, the welfare sector only recently began the process, with all the consequences in terms of the advantages and disadvantages for early adopters compared with second movers. However, important differences exist between platforms that begin as green-field start-ups and brown-field platforms: the former are more prevalent in transport, the latter in the welfare sector, due in part to greater barriers to entry for people lacking sector-specific skills and experience.