Platform cooperativism is a practice and intellectual framework which seeks the replacement of the extractive business models of the sharing economy with worker-owned, democratically-governed, ethical and equitable alternatives. Despite short-term consumer convenience and technological aptitude, the so-called sharing economy has failed to make good on the promises implied in its name: its businesses neither share their wealth, with the industry rate of exploitation averaging 25%, nor promote social reciprocity, having have hamstrung the once-booming social economies of, e.g., couchsurfing and ride sharing. The claim of platform cooperativism is that a future of fairer work is possible.
