Framework

Mitigating vs organisational strategies for platforms

The question it answers

When policymakers want digital platforms to treat workers and users more fairly, should they regulate platforms as owned today or change ownership and governance itself?

Origin
Ferretti, 2020; Coyle, 2017; Schor, 2014
Diagram type
Comparison table
Level of analysis
Industry
Topics
Entrepreneurship & innovationEthics & corporate governance
Rocket lifting off from a glass light bulb, icon for entrepreneurship and innovation

Diagram

Mitigating vs organisational strategies for platforms

CriterionMitigatingOrganisational
IdeaKeep market benefits; the state regulates and redistributesChange ownership: cooperatives, public platforms
ToolsRedistributive taxes, retraining, worker protection regardless of contract type, anti-discrimination law, data portabilitySupport for platform cooperatives, data mobility between platforms
StrengthPolitically feasible, preserves innovationBuilds fairness into governance
WeaknessPlatforms evade rules; the power asymmetry remainsHard to scale against venture capital

Sources

References

Listed A–Z by author surname, Harvard style. A source with a DOI links to https://doi.org/…; one without links to its page or says plainly that it has no DOI.

  1. Coyle, D. (2017) ‘Precarious and productive work in the digital economy’, National Institute Economic Review, 240(1), pp. R5–R14.doi:10.1177/002795011724000110Source page
  2. Ferretti, T. (2020) ‘A liberal egalitarian perspective on the platform economy: mitigating its distributive effects or changing the organizations running it?’, Journal of Social Philosophy, 51(1), pp. 54–79.doi:10.1111/josp.12330Source page
  3. Schor, J. (2014) Debating the sharing economy. Great Transition Initiative.No DOIgreattransition.orgSource page