A New Perspective on the Digital Age

With new technologies comes a world of opportunity. In this day and age, technology has transformed all aspects of society. We stream through daily activities, competing on what can get done the fastest.

With the swipe of a finger and the click of a button, we can call an Uber to take us where ever we please, have our food delivered to our door, etc. The possibilities are endless. However, this emergence of new technological platforms hold the ability to transform our economy and the foundational system we are built on, at large.

This week’s readings explore new ways of operating within a technological world that is so largely based on the advancement of goals through social media platforms.

The idea of platform cooperativism is a concept where the platforms are owned and governed by those who utilize them the most- workers, users, etc. Platform cooperativism objects against the view that technology is the solution to all problems, but rather it supports the coexistence of cooperatively-owned businesses with the goal of a diversified digital labor perspective in order to uphold fair working conditions.

Now, why did this concept come about? Around the 2000s and 2010s, when technology emerged faster than ever before, conversations arose on the issue of using digital markets to avoid traditional labor rights. For instance, the famously known ride-sharing app, Uber, successfully manipulated employees by marketing their full-time positions as contractors to avoid legally-granted labor protections, the largest being minimum wage laws. I had never known that Uber was tailored in such a way, because the concept of flexible hours and autonomous features makes it appealing. However, the pay of a full-time Uber driver is not as great as one would expect.

This type of thinking has made a global impact in countries such as Spain, the United Kingdom, and Argentina. Several cooperatives have surfaced in these countries along with public policies to further implement social justice. Many organizations are currently operating in an effort sustain the movement towards a shared economy, where capitalism isn’t used to diminish the human labor experience.

When I first read about this concept, my mind steered towards the direction of an economy based on equal income and fairness, similar to socialism. However, after further research, I began to understand the differences. Platform cooperativism focuses on intermediating our digital world, a modern form of thinking, whereas socialism is a rudimentary understanding of the economy based on a retrospective view.

Times are changing and the advancement of technology will only progress. Our economy could experience an increase in low-income families and pitiful labor experiences. However, with the idea of a shared economy, all users could thrive in this digital age of ours.

Scholz, Trebor. “Platform Cooperativism vs. the Sharing Economy.” Medium, December 5, 2014.

Painter, Anthony and Chris Thoung. Power to Create: Creative citizen, creative state: the principled and pragmatic case for a Universal Basic Income. RSA, London, 2015.

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