[This post is intended to follow my Reader Response Post 2: STS, MLP, and Sustainable Agrifood systems]

Concerns raised around the concentration of power and wealth in my last discussion post can also be seen in heightened interest in employee and worker ownership, exemplified through legislation like the Main Street Employee Ownership Act (GovTrack.us, 2021). Many are also recognizing the benefits shared ownership offer not only in terms of equity but resilience and recovery in response to crises like the COVID pandemic as well (Kelly & Rose, 2021; Chen & Chen, 2021; Goodman, 2020).

The platform cooperative movement (Platform Cooperativism Consortium, 2021) represents a recent response to growing wealth and power inequities specifically associated with socio-technical systems constituting the platform economy and “platform capitalism”. With an explicit focus on democratic ownership and governance of digital platforms, serving the needs of workers and users versus distant investors, platform cooperativism is very much in line with the participatory goals and processes of STS.

In their recent Georgetown Law Technology Review paper, Morshed Mannan and Nathan Schneider (2021) point to the platform economy’s “crisis of accountability”. Where instead of fulfilling hopes for more democratic social movements and a new economy, internet platforms have raised concerns about a variety of issues, including election interference, corporate surveillance, market concentration, and labor exploitation. They point out that despite these issues, online platforms have become nearly ubiquitous in many aspects of modern life, offering one of the most powerful mechanisms for people and organizations to make their voices heard, and build social capital^[1]. To leverage the multiple opportunities platforms offer without the exploitative downsides associated with profit maximizing private ownership, Mannan and Schneider suggest “multi-stakeholder ownership” be considered as an alternative, including multi-stakeholder cooperatives.

In Solidarity as a Business Model: A Multi-Stakeholder Cooperatives Manual created for the Cooperative Development Center at Kent State University, Margaret Lund, (2011) defines multi-stakeholder cooperatives as “co-ops that formally allow for governance by representatives of two or more stakeholder groups within the same organization”. It also provides several examples through case studies, and general guidance useful in creating one. That includes the importance of organizing around a broad mission that reflects the interdependent interests of multiple stakeholders and partners, echoing the guidance Wei-Skillern (2007) and her co-authors provide in terms of alliance strategies for social enterprises.

Drawing on the work of Maurie J. Cohen (2017), who advocates for the exploration of multi-stakeholder ownership structures in platform co-operatives, Mannan and Schneider explain their reasoning for why multi-stakeholder ownership should be considered as an option:

Multi-stakeholder ownership is considered to be beneficial for business models that combine production and consumption under a single organizational umbrella, such as online platforms, as they treat stakeholders as “allies rather than rivals, prioritize community solidarity over return on investment, and emphasize collective enhancement instead of value appropriation.

This ability to bring together and serve a wide range of stakeholders who have shared interests not only in the affordances offered by platform itself, but the broader community it serves, may be ideally suited to the needs of local and regional food systems stakeholders (a focus of my research here). That includes those with specific roles associated with the production, distribution and consumption of food, and the broader community a social enterprise might serve and depend on. One concrete example of the type of agrifood systems stakeholder group who might be supported and brought together through a multi-stakeholder platform cooperative includes the “stewardship business model” described by Virginia Gewin in her 2019 Civil Eats article, enabling them to "scale up without selling out".

Recognizing the nature of today’s increasingly digitized and platformized economy, and the liberatory potential of platform cooperatives, Mondragon Cooperative’s own university (www.mondragon.edu) is now partnering with The New School to offer an online course (Platform Cooperativism Consortium, 2020) in platform cooperatives (which this author completed in the spring of 2021). I explore this more in my next post.

References

(Titles hyperlink to respective citation entry for this group library)

Chen, K. K., & Chen, V. T. (2021, May 19). Commentary: Cooperatives can make economies more resilient to crises like COVID-19. Retrieved from Fortune: https://fortune.com/2021/05/19/worker-cooperatives-employee-owned-businesses/

Cohen, M. J. (2017). Workers-and Consumers-of the World Unite! Opportunities for Hybrid Cooperativism. In J. Michie, J. R. Blasi, & C. Borzaga, The Oxford handbook of mutual, co-operative, and co-owned business. Oxford University Press. https://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199684977.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780199684977

Dobson, S., Sukumar, A., Ridley-Duff, R., Roast, C., & Abell, B. (2015). Reciprocity and Resilience: Teaching and Learning Sustainable Social Enterprise through Gaming. Journal Of Organisational Transformation & Social Change, 12(1), 42-56. https://doi.org/10.1179/1477963314Z.00000000034

Gewin, V. (2019, December 19). Can Mission-Driven Food Companies Scale Up Without Selling Out? Civil Eats. https://civileats.com/2019/12/19/can-mission-driven-food-companies-scale-up-without-selling-out/

Goodman, P. S. (2020, December 29). Co-ops in Spain’s Basque Region Soften Capitalism’s Rough Edges. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/29/business/cooperatives-basque-spain-economy.html

GovTrack.us. (2021). S. 2786 — 115th Congress: Main Street Employee Ownership Act of 2018. Retrieved from https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/115/s2786

Kelly, M., & Rose, J. (2021, March 4). Scaling up employee ownership is key to an equitable economic recovery. Retrieved from Fast Company: https://www.fastcompany.com/90610795/scaling-up-employee-ownership-is-key-to-an-equitable-economic-recovery

Lund, M. (2011). Solidarity as a Business Model: A Multi-Stakeholder Cooperatives Manual. Cooperative Development Center at Kent State University. Retrieved from https://www.oeockent.org/resources-events/publications-and-research

Mannan, M., & Schneider, N. (2021, May). Exit to Community: Strategies for Multi-Stakeholder Ownership in the Platform Economy. Georgetown Law Technology Review. Retrieved from https://georgetownlawtechreview.org/exit-to-community-strategies-for-multi-stakeholder-ownership-in-the-platform-economy/GLTR-05-2021/

Platform Cooperativism Consortium. (2020). Platform Co-ops Now! 2nd Edition. Retrieved from Platform Cooperativism Consortium: https://platform.coop/blog/platform-co-ops-now-2nd-edition/

Platform Cooperativism Consortium. (2021, 6 30). Platform Cooperativism Consortium. https://platform.coop

Wei-Skillern, J. (2007). Entrepreneurship in the social sector. Los Angeles: Sage Publications.

[1] Dobson and his co-authors (2015) suggest that “introduc[ing] social capital into a social system” is one of the defining characteristics of a social enterprise.

>My next Reader Response Post 4: Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) Ecosystems