Event (Barcellona): "From the Corporate Sharing Economy to Platform Cooperativism"

June 7, 2016

      From the Corporate Sharing Economy to Platform Cooperativism

Trebor Scholz, scholar-activist and Associate Professor for Culture & 
Media at The New School in New York City, and expert in sharing 
consumerism. The event is co-organized by CCCBLab and the Dimmons 
research group of the IN3

The CCCB will host the conference " From the Corporate Sharing Economy 
to Platform Cooperativism 
<http://www.cccb.org/en/activitats/fitxa/de-la-economia-collaborativa-al-coop...>" 
by Trebor Scholz 
<http://www.cccb.org/en/participants/fitxa/trebor-scholz/223892>. The 
event is organized jointly with the Dimmons 
<http://dimmons.net/> research group of the IN3, and the collaboration 
of Procomuns.net, IGOP.net, P2Pvalue and BCNActiva.

The presentation will be led by Mayo Fuster 
<http://www.cccb.org/en/participants/fitxa/mayo-fuster/45356>, director 
of the Dimmons group about sharing economy. The session will be held in 
_English_ and there will be _Spanish simultaneous translation_. This 
activity _can be seen live_ from the CCCB website. _Free admission but 
seating is limited_.

Trebor Scholz is the author of the book entitled /Cooperativismo de 
plataforma. Desafiando la economía colaborativa corporativa/ (Dimmons, 
2016). The book is an essay on mistrust being created in sharing 
consumerism. Big companies are eliminating democratic values such as 
responsibility labor, workers' rights, etc., and Scholz introduces the 
concept of platform cooperativism to propose an economic movement that 
benefits most citizens.

Cases such as Airbnb, Uber or eBay have popularised the concept of 
sharing economy. Digital platforms allow for the exchange of products 
and services, defying the business model of traditional companies. In 
many cases, though, the expansion of these platforms goes against the 
rights of their workforces. All these dilemmas and their alternatives 
will be discussed by Trebor Scholz.

For Scholz, however, these software companies have created markets where 
they did not exist before, basing them on the infrastructure of other 
people: your car, your apartment, your time… Logistics companies where 
the intermediary gets paid and the employees lose their working rights: 
no unemployment, no social security and no retirement. Scholz highlights 
that we need to understand the long-term implications of these platforms 
and consider alternatives. Platform cooperativism matches the technology 
of digital platforms with a cooperative organisation model. It also asks 
the question of what would happen if the Internet was used and ruled in 
a different way, bringing the economy closer to its citizens in a way 
that benefited everyone.

*Trebor Scholz* is a scholar-activist and Associate Professor for 
Culture & Media at The New School in New York City. His book 
/Uber-Worked and Underpaid. How Workers Are Disrupting the Digital 
Economy/ (Polity, 2016) develops an analysis of the challenges posed by 
digital labor and introduces the concept of platform cooperativism as a 
way of joining the peer-to-peer and co-op movements with online labor 
markets while insisting on communal ownership and democratic governance. 
In 2009, Scholz started to convene the influential digital labor 
conferences at The New School. Today, he frequently presents on the 
future of work, solidarity, and the Internet to media scholars, lawyers, 
activists, designers, developers, union leaders, and policymakers 
worldwide. His articles and ideas have appeared in /The Nation/, /The 
Chronicle of Higher Education/, /Le Monde/ and /The Washington Post/.

Where: The Mirador - CCCB, Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona, 
c/ Montalegre, 5, 08001 Barcelona
When: Thursday, 09 June 2016 (18:30 - 20:30)

[…]

Continua qui: 
http://in3.uoc.edu/opencms_portalin3/opencms/en/activitats/seminaris/agenda/...

J.C. DE MARTIN

Stefano Quintarelli

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