[P2P-F] Fwd: [Networkedlabour] Platform Cooperativism vs. the Sharing Economy — Medium

Sun Jan 4 10:48:56 CET 2015

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Orsan <orsan1234 at gmail.com>
Date: Sat, Jan 3, 2015 at 1:34 AM
Subject: [Networkedlabour] Platform Cooperativism vs. the Sharing Economy —
Medium
To: "<networkedlabour at lists.contrast.org>" <
networkedlabour at lists.contrast.org>

interesting piece by Trebor Schulz:

"The backlash against unethical labor practices in the “collaborative
sharing economy” has been overplayed. Recently, The Washington Post
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/storyline/wp/2014/09/10/at-the-uber-for-home-cleaning-workers-pay-a-price-for-convenience/>
, New York Times
<http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/19/upshot/when-uber-lyft-and-airbnb-meet-the-real-world.html>
 and others
<http://www.newrepublic.com/article/120378/wonolo-temp-worker-app-shows-scary-future-sharing-economy>
started
to rail against online labor brokerages like Taskrabbit, Handy, and Uber
because of an utter lack of concern for their workers. At the recent Digital
Labor conference <http://digitallabor.org/>, my colleague McKenzie Wark
proposed that the modes of production that we appear to be entering are not
quite capitalism as classically described. “This is not capitalism,” he
said, “this is something worse.” [1]
<https://medium.com/p/2ea737f1b5ad/edit#_ftn1>

But just for one moment imagine that the algorithmic heart of any of these
citadels of anti-unionism could be cloned and brought back to life under a
different ownership model, with fair working conditions, as a humane
alternative to the free market model.

Take, for example, Uber’s app, with all its geolocation and ride ordering
capabilities. Why do its owners and investors have to be the main
benefactors of such platform-based labor brokerage? Developers, in
collaboration with local, worker-owner cooperatives could design such a
self-contained program for mobile phones. Despite its meteoric rise, $300
million in VC-backing (and its $18 billion evaluation bubble), as well as
massive international reach, there is nothing inevitable about Uber’s
long-term success. There’s no magic sauce when it comes to developing such
a piece of software; it’s not rocket science. Of course, technology is only
one part of the equation and instead of letting techno-determinism run its
course, I’d rather point to the long history of worker-owned cooperatives,
EP Thompson and Robert Owen..."
https://medium.com/@trebors/platform-cooperativism-vs-the-sharing-economy-2ea737f1b5ad

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