Cooperatives and Digital Economy

Japan Workers’ Co-operative Union (JWCU)

Board Member / International Relations Officer

Osamu Nakano

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Victor A. Pestoff’s Triangle

Informal PUBLIC SECTOR State/Government

Redistribution

MARKET Private Companies

Exchange

COMMUNITY Families

Reciprocity

Formal Nonprofit

For-Profit

Public

Private NON-GOVERNMENT NON-PROFIT CIVIL SOCIETY

SECTOR

NON-GOVERNMENT NON-PROFIT CIVIL SOCIETY

SECTOR

↓ Cooperatives NPOs/NGOs Trade Unions

Religious Organizations Mutual Aid Associations

Social Enterprises Fair Trade

Micro Finance/Credit Local Money, etc

Definition and Values (by ICA)

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Definition

“A co-operative is an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social, and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly-owned and democratically-controlled enterprise.”

Values

“Co-operatives are based on the values of self- help, self-responsibility, democracy, equality, equity and solidarity. In the tradition of their founders, co-operative members believe in the ethical values of honesty, openness, social responsibility and caring for others.”

Management

Capital Contribution

Transaction

Principles of Cooperatives (by ICA)

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1. Voluntary and Open Membership

2. Democratic Member Control (one member, one vote)

3. Member Economic Participation

4. Autonomy and Independence

5. Education, Training and Information

6. Co-operation among Co-operatives

7. Concern for Community Cooperatives work for the sustainable development of their communities through policies approved by their members.

International Co-operative Alliance (ICA)

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Founded: 1895 Member Countries/Organizations: 107 / 307

Member Individuals/Coops: 1.2 Billion (United States, India, Japan, Iran)

Regional Offices: Africa, Americas, Asia and Pacific, Europe

Sectors: Agricultural, Banking, Consumer, Fisheries, Housing,

Health and Welfare, Insurance, Industrial and Service

Partnerships: United Nations (Economic and Social Council / ECOSOC),

FAO, ILO, Mont-Blanc Meetings Association, B 20, etc.

300 largest co-operatives had a combined annual turn-over of $2.5 trillion USD in 2017. Cooperatives generate partial or full-time employment for at least 280 million individuals worldwide, either in or within the scope of co-operatives, making up almost 12% of the entire employed population of the G20 countries. UN estimates that cooperatives support the livelihoods of almost half of the total global population.

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Cooperatives in Japan

Agricultural Coops (JA) Consumer Coops Fisheries Coops Forestry Coops Small and Medium-sized Enterprise Coops Labor Banks Credit Coops Credit Unions Cooperative Insurances

Workers’ Cooperatives

Platform cooperativism is a growing international movement that builds a fairer future of work. It’s about social justice and the bottom line. Rooted in democratic ownership, coop members, technologists, unionists, and freelancers create a concrete near-future alternative to the extractive sharing economy. Making good on the early promise of the Web to decentralize the power of apps, protocols, and websites, platform coops allow households with low and volatile income to benefit from the shift of labor markets to the Internet. Steering clear of the belief in one-click fixes of social problems, the model is poised to vitalize people-centered innovation by joining the rich heritage and values of coops with emerging Internet technologies.

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Platform Cooperativism

(https://platform.coop/)

This ecosystem challenges the practices of the “sharing economy” and the often misogynist ‘win at all costs’ culture of Silicon Valley. The cooperative platform ecosystem ranges from alternative financing models, labor brokerages for nurses, massage therapists, and cleaners, to cooperatively owned online marketplaces, and data-protection platforms for patients. Rather than posing as the solution for the quick defeat of the extractive investor-owned model, successful platform co-ops have already and continue to make a meaningful difference in the lives of those who participate in them. It is a project that people can work on in their lifetime. New decentralized networks are enabling people to share their data with each other without relying on a corporate cloud.

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➢ Lower transaction and retention costs

➢ Surplus revenues of co-ops are transferred to the members

➢ 80% of co-ops survive their first five years compared with 41% of

other business ownership models

➢ Money flows within local communities

➢ Protection from exploitation through ownership, transparency, control

➢ Higher commitment of users disincentivizes short-termism

➢ Prospect of data democracy

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➢ Up & Go It offers professional home services like house cleaning, (and soon childcare and dog walking) by those who are looking for assistance with laborers from local worker-owned cooperatives. Unlike extractive home-services platforms which take up to 30% of workers’ income, Up & Go charges only the 5% it needs to maintain the platform.

➢ Cotabo (Bologna, Italy), ATX Coop Taxi(Austin, TX), Green Taxi Cooperative (Denver, CO), etc. The 25% fee that corporate ride-hail (taxi) platforms extract from drivers has led some drivers to create cooperative platforms across Europe and the United States. They have each provided their worker- owners the dignity of a living wage by developing their own taxi apps. ➢ MiData (health data cooperative in Swiss) It has created a data-exchange which will securely host member-users’ medical records. By integrating this traditional health data with emerging data streams from FitBit devices and personal genomic services, MiData aims to out-compete private, for-profit data brokers and ultimately return the control and monetization of personal data to those who generate it.

Some Examples of Platform Cooperatives

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(ICA-Asia and Pacific/ULCCS)

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Thank you for Listening!