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Experiences of Platform Cooperatives in Argentina
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... However, grounding the results of our systematic review on this trend related to unorthodox developments in the theory of the firm, our findings confirm the fact that, despite promising premises, scholars usually focus on single stakeholders or consider platform cooperatives only as a "black box" (Coase, 1937;Williamson, 1985) yet miss the analytic assessment of this organizational form's peculiar characteristics and the different stakeholders' strategic complementarities. Namely, even if there are contributions dealing with the role of cooperative developers/workers (Bunders, 2021;Cohen, 2018;Kasparian, 2022;Kirsanova et al. 2021;Mannan & Schneider, 2021;Schneider, 2018), gig workers' unions (Conaty et al., 2018;Meira & Fernandes, 2021;Woodcock & Graham, 2020), customers and civil society actors (Borkin, 2019; Mannan & Schneider, 2021;Mayo, 2019;Mello Rose, 2021;Muldoon, 2022;Schneider, 2018;Talonen et al., 2016Talonen et al., , 2020, public institutions (Bernardi & Diamantini, 2020;Calzada, 2020Calzada, , 2021Schneider, 2018;Scholz et al., 2021) and academics/activists (Schneider, 2018;Scholz, 2017), the mutual relations among these 7 In this sense, there has recently been growing interest in the possible relations between platform cooperatives and Decentralised Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) (Rocas-Royo, 2019). DAOs are blockchain-based participatory data governance and coordination frameworks (Hassan & De Filippi, 2021) that can help platform co-ops to scale efficiently and decentralise power while simultaneously retaining and expanding features like democratic governance, shared ownership and equitable value distribution, probably one of the main challenges platform cooperatives have to face (Mannan & Schneider, 2021). ...
... Coordinating for collective action and launching platform cooperatives Bunders (2021), Cohen (2018), Kasparian (2022), Kirsanova et al. (2021), Mannan and Schneider (2021), Schneider (2018), Scholz and Schneider (2017) Gig workers' unions Pushing for worker-friendly legislation and playing a complementary role with platform co-ops actors and their distinct but complementary inputs in the value creation process have not been systematically analyzed. We will discuss in-depth these relations in the next section. ...
... A good example is CoopCycle. 15 CoopCycle is a French bike-logistic digital infrastructure that gave birth to an international federation of food-delivery cooperatives by letting them use and customize the software in their local contexts (Kasparian, 2022). In this way, the federative strategy allows co-ops to face the cost of building up the platform by promoting the sharing of the same software within a network of independent but affiliated cooperatives and, 9 In multi-stakeholder platforms, all the users, producers and platform developers are member-owners. ...
Platform cooperatives, namely, businesses that sell goods or services primarily through a website, mobile app, or protocol and commit to the principles of democratic governance and shared ownership, have lately been proposed as a more sustainable, equitable and, under certain conditions, even efficient alternative to the organizational model of commercial platforms. Accordingly, they have been presented as economic institutions capable of involving all their relevant stakeholders in an extended and inclusive governance structure. Nevertheless, this emerging literature is still characterized by the lack of a holistic and analytic framework connecting the dispersed studies on the topic through the lens of stakeholder theory and detailing strategic complementarities between these different stakeholders. Related to this point, while dealing with the competitive advantages and challenges of platform cooperatives, little reference has been made to the existing debate in governance theory about the advantages and challenges of cooperative firms as compared to capitalist ones. These research gaps motivated our literature review, which is the first comprehensive systematic review specifically focused on this topic. Given the still‐emerging character of the research object, our work also makes way for future updates as new contributions are gradually published.
... In addition to collective actions for rights and regulation, movements around platform cooperativism (Scholz & Schneider, 2016) emerged in the context of a re-articulation of solidarity economy with digital technologies (Grohmann, 2021(Grohmann, , 2022Kasparian, 2022). These worker-owned technologies (not always incorporated formally as co-ops) are rooted in larger social movements, some paying particular attention to the female workers' conditions, from a gender perspective (Grohmann, 2021;Salvagni et al., 2022). ...
... These worker-owned technologies (not always incorporated formally as co-ops) are rooted in larger social movements, some paying particular attention to the female workers' conditions, from a gender perspective (Grohmann, 2021;Salvagni et al., 2022). In Argentina, the Argentine Federation of Work and Technology Cooperatives (FACTTIC) is adapting the CoopCycle model to the local context, that is "re-territorializing" it (Kasparian, 2022). ...
Distinctive features of the on‐demand work platforms made it theoretically improbable for workers to organize and for collective forms of protest to emerge. Their business model and work arrangements spatially isolate and socially individualize workers, subjectivizing them as competing micro‐enterprises rather than co‐workers. However, faced with the flood of the platforms on a global scale, collective actions of platform workers surged like a backwash, especially in the ride‐hailing and food delivery sectors, during the last decade. Observers witnessed a great variety in the combination of actors involved and repertoire of actions mobilized worldwide. Despite this diversity, some common global trends can be sketched out. Through a literature review focused on Europe, Latin America, North America and Asia, this article shows that workers struggle globally to build a collective actor, through an original combination of new and old forms of protest. They ought to compensate for their weak marketplace bargaining power by leveraging their discursive, associational, coalitional and workplace bargaining powers.
... (Cited in Rosenblum 2017, June 6). Platform cooperatives do not scale like corporate platforms; they scale by creating networks of companies that eventually compete against large companies (Kasparian 2022;Scholz 2022). This entails two challenges: firstly, maintaining cooperative values and principles while expanding. ...
It is often argued that digital labour platforms entail an expansion of opportunities for women for several reasons. They facilitate the balance between paid work and household chores as a result of time flexibility, they eliminate entry and permanence barriers for typically male work sectors, they enable economic independence, and they favour the creation of professional networks. Several studies, however, have shown that the wage gap, the sexual division of labour, occupational segregation, and gender stereotypes still persist. Hence, to what extent do the new forms of labour mediated by digital platforms lead to an expansion of opportunities for women? This article analyses the socio-labour inclusion of low-income women in digital labour platforms by contrasting the model of corporate platforms against the emerging alternative of platform cooperatives. The movement of platform cooperativism advocates for the creation of platform companies based on democratic ownership and governance models that reduce inequalities in a broad sense. The methodological approach is based on the comparison of two platforms: Zolvers, which was founded in 2013 with headquarters in Argentina and which operates as an intermediary or marketplace between those who offer and those who require home cleaning services, and Up & Go, which was founded in 2017 in New York and is owned by six worker cooperatives that use the platform to offer various services on demand, particularly home cleaning services. Whereas Zolvers offers job opportunities with possibilities of formalisation but no guarantee of stability, Up & Go is owned and managed by worker cooperatives that seek to guarantee living wages for their worker-members. Concerning working conditions, Zolvers reproduces power asymmetries of domestic work, subordinating workers to the platform and the hirers. On the contrary, Up & Go empowers women workers to decide on their schedules and hirers, among other issues. Finally, whereas Zolvers does not enable the participation of workers either in governance or in technology design, the cooperative nature of Up & Go promotes their involvement.
This paper addresses the implementation of CoopCycle in Argentina. This platform co-op is an open-source digital infrastructure for cycling logistics as well as a federation made up of the bike delivery cooperatives that use the platform. The study addresses three distinct objectives: document the advancement of the Argentine implementation by identifying obstacles and challenges in a specific municipality in the country, describe the economic and political benefits worker cooperatives of CoopCycle at a pilot stage in Argentina bring to couriers, and examine this first year of CoopCycle Latinoamérica, which was established in December 2021, as well as the transition of the CoopCycle federation into a multi-stakeholder cooperative, with a focus on the form of inclusion of experiences from outside Europe. Each objective is deployed at different levels: the first in the Argentine municipality of San Martín, the second in Argentina, and the third in the Latin American region. The methodology strategy is based on a single qualitative case study. The primary research techniques resorted to were participant observation, semi-structured interviews, documentary analysis, and desk research.
Access to eprint: https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/5NAPVEFEDGZE6X9DEATN/full?target=10.1080/02692171.2024.2433443
En este artículo analizamos el despliegue de CoopCycle en la Argentina. Esta cooperativa de plataforma de reparto y mensajería nació en Francia en el 2017 y se extendió por Europa como una alternativa socio-laboral sustentable al avance de las plataformas capitalistas. En los últimos dos años, comenzó su desembarco en la Argentina de la mano de la Federación Argentina de Cooperativas de Trabajo de Tecnología Información y Conocimiento (FACTTIC). En el marco de un trabajo colaborativo entre espacios universitarios y cooperativos, que recurre a técnicas de investigación cualitativas y participativas, abordamos el caso desde una perspectiva socio-técnica. Identificamos cuatro dimensiones nodales en la construcción de funcionamiento: la adaptación funcional del software, la resignificación de los componentes de identidad de proyecto, el desarrollo de circuitos socioeconómicos y la consolidación de la escala regional del proyecto. Este análisis permite extraer aprendizajes sobre las potencialidades y limitaciones del cooperativismo de plataformas en tanto movimiento contrahegemónico alternativo al capitalismo de plataformas.
