Becoming a Platform in Europe: On the Governance of the Collaborative Economy (NowOpen)

Emerging out of the collaborative work conducted within the Working Group "Mechanisms to activate and support the collaborative economy" of the COST Action "From Sharing to Caring: Examining Socio-Technical Aspects of the Collaborative Economy", the book questions the varied set of organizational forms collected under the label of "collaborative" or "sharing" economy -ranging from grassroots peer-to-peer solidarity initiatives to corporate owned platforms- from the perspective of what is known as the European social values: respect for human dignity and human rights (including those of minorities), freedom, democracy, equality, and the rule of law. Therefore, the edited collection focuses on the governance of such economic activities, and how they organize labour, cooperation and social life. From individual motivations to participating, to platform use by local groups, until platform design in its political as well as technological dimensions, the book provides a comparative overview and critical discussion on the processes, narratives and organizational models at play in the collaborative economy. On such a basis, the volume offers tools, suggestions and visions for the future that may inform the designing of policies, technologies, and business models in Europe. About the Author Maurizio Teli is Associate Professor of Techno-Anthropology and Participation at the Department of Planning, Aalborg University, Denmark. He works at the intersection of participatory design, the analysis of socio-economic inequalities, and critical theories. He investigates how to co-design technologies contributing to commoning practices, with a particular focus on collaborations with grassroots initiatives.He serves in the editorial board and program committee of international journals and conferences in interaction design, co- design, and participatory design. He is now chairing the Center for Sustainability and Digital Transformation at the Technical Faculty of IT and Design at Aalborg University.Chiara Bassetti is Senior Assistant Professor at the Department of Sociology and Social Research of the University of Trento, and a researcher at the Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies of the Italian National Research Council (CNR). An ethnographer and ethnomethodologist, her main research focus rests on social interaction, cultural phenomena and collaborative practices. Workplace studies, computer supported collaborative work, and socio-technical systems are areas of interest. Further research concerns cooperation, grassroots initiatives and socioeconomic innovation. Since 2012, she has been working in interdisciplinary teams, contributing to the design of artifacts such as digital platforms and complementary currencies. She is Co-Editor in Chief of Etnografia e Ricerca Qualitativa - the Italian journal of Ethnography and Qualitative Research.