In our upcoming call we will focus on modes of transnational collaboration and shared work infrastructure across various jurisdictions. Especially when working in a cooperative environment, with a global membership and national coop laws, we are facing a number of challenges when it comes to collective decisionmaking and online participation.
Together with you, we want to shed light on:
a) facilitation of international groups
b) platforms for collective decisionmaking
c) legal coop frameworks all over Europe

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The Platform Coop Online Series:
During the current corona pandemic, people are forced to make radical changes and adaptations. #SocialDistancing and the adaptation of previous habits and routines will hopefully ensure the success of #FlattenTheCurve measures. Government rescue packages for all affected people – from companies and the self-employed to particularly vulnerable groups – are hoped to help people in acute need. However, the shutdown of our economy is already causing supply bottlenecks, and the impending wave of insolvencies increases the risk of an economic crisis and recession. Additional debt also makes our current economic and social system even more fragile.

We have cause for concern, as the virus is presenting people with an unprecedented global challenge. Nevertheless, most of the conditions described above could have been triggered by other events: Consumerism produces externalities such as climate change and resource scarcity. The rallies on the stock markets, artificially stimulated since the last financial crisis, cyclically distribute money from poor to rich. The world’s democracies are losing the trust of their citizens.

Since the last major financial crisis, the world has witnessed the proliferation and growth of large platform companies such as Airbnb, Uber and Deliveroo – companies based on the idea of outsourcing labor and parts of value chains to make their business more efficient, effective and leaner. As a result, those responsible for providing services and products are no longer employees of the companies concerned, but often self-employed or private individuals. This means that they are not equally protected by social security systems and compete with others to offer their labour on the platforms.

This development has motivated many former Sharing Economy project initiators and social entrepreneurs around the world to think about the idea of sharing on a new level. Instead of focusing on sharing products and services, sharing ownership of the organization is a key component of the platform cooperative movement. The implementation of democratic co-determination and collaborative ownership structures is seen as a promising way to overcome potentially negative effects that tend to accompany the gig economy.

Together with you, we want to find out to what extent fair alternatives to the platform economy can provide answers in the current corona as well as the upcoming economic crisis.

We therefore invite you to a weekly online call series in which we can share experiences, projects and resources.

Language: English and German. Mostly, the communication language is English, but we live translate in the chat. Everyone is welcome to speak in their own language. We assist with translation.

Organized by Ela Kagel, Andreas Arnold, Thomas Dönnebrink & Claudia Henke

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