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Catalyzing worker co-ops & the solidarity economy

Little Italian villages show the way to a cooperative economy

 

Op-ed: We've seen a number of platform cooperatives, which integrate the practices of cooperatives in digital platforms by democratizing control and ownership, crop up in the U.S. These organizations are formed with the goal of countering extractive platforms that promote digital capitalism. While these platforms are often started in order to create a cooperative model, in Old Europe, the road appears to go in the other direction. It consists of cooperation between global digital platforms and bottom-up initiatives by community enterprises, located in small villages in Italy — away from the bright lights of Smart Cities. Distinguishing the two paths is necessary for discussion and collaboration.

For example, take Lavenone, a little village near Brescia in the north of Italy, one of the so-called "authentic villages" where Airbnb decided to invest. What is interesting is that the country managers of the digital platform won’t be greeted by a handful of hosts scattered around the village and the surrounding areas, but rather by a structured network of citizens, social enterprises, and local authorities. This was possible thanks to the resources allocated by Fondazione Cariplo, aimed at regenerating the economy of this region.

Likewise, Calceranica is a village located near Trento in the north of the country with approximately 1,000 residents and 600 homes for tourists that used to be empty. In this case, a little private agency focused on local development, along with the municipality, decided to pool these underused resources and transform them in a sort of "selling group" through a strategy of coordinated communication on the booking platform.

Read the rest at Shareable

 

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