Platform cooperatives, a model of commons and sustainability

This chapter examines the emergence of platform cooperatives as organizational arrangements capable of reconnecting digital economic activity with social and environmental objectives. Building on the literature on commons, cooperatives, and substantive economy, we explore how the integration of collective resource governance and cooperative ownership can generate new forms of socio-economic organization. We propose the concept of commons-oriented platform cooperatives to describe platform-based organizations that combine democratic governance, multi-stakeholder participation, and the production or protection of digital commons. Drawing on a comparative analysis of five international case studies, namely Loomio, CoopCycle, Mobicoop, Open Food Network, and CoopCircuits, we investigate the institutional mechanisms through which cooperatives and commons interact and reinforce one another. The analysis highlights how these organizations mobilize open-source technologies, collective ownership, reciprocal licensing, and community participation to pursue socially useful missions while resisting processes of commodification and data extraction. Our findings show that commons-oriented platform cooperatives contribute to sustainability and social inclusion by fostering local resilience, supporting fairer labor relations, promoting environmentally responsible practices, and creating shared digital infrastructures. At the same time, they face persistent challenges related to funding, governance complexity, scaling, and dependence on voluntary contributions. We argue that the combination of commons-based governance and cooperative ownership can help prevent organizational degeneration and strengthen the capacity of platform cooperatives to serve broader collective interests. By linking Polanyi's notion of the substantive economy with contemporary debates on digital social innovation and platform cooperativism, the chapter contributes to understanding how alternative digital organizations can support ecological transition and democratic economic development.