The platform economy is growing exponentially while creating expectations for its potential to contribute to a sustainable development. However, research aimed at showing the potential contribution of each platform’s business model to sustainable development is needed. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are driving the policy agenda, but it remains unclear how far they encourage a sustainable platform economy. First, this article aims to study how each different type of platform contributes to sustainable development. Second, it analyses if and how the factors that contribute to the sustainable design of platforms are considered in SDGs. The paper departs from a framework of sustainable democratic qualities of the platform economy that considers governance, economic sustainability, technological and data policies, social responsibility, and external impact dimensions. The study is based on an empirical analysis of 60 platforms. The results show that a sustainable design of a platform economy promotes sustainable development. Furthermore, the contributions of the sustainable dimensions of a platform to SDGs are mainly connected to the impact and responsibility and the economic model, but governance and data dimensions are not present in the SDGs. This suggests that SDGs should improve their digital perspective to intertwine better with the sustainable platforms.

The term “collaborative economy” or “collaborative economy platforms” refers to exchange, sharing, and collaboration in the consumption and production of capital and labor among distributed groups, supported by a digital platform. Collaborative economies’ use is growing rapidly and exponentially, creating high expectations of sustainability and their potential to contribute to the democratization of the economy. However, collaborative economy platforms lack a holistic framework to assess their sustainability and pro-democratization qualities. In addition, there is confusion about platforms which present themselves as collaborative when they actually are not, and similar uncertainties and ambiguities are associated with diverse models. To address this confusion, this article provides a framework for assessing the pro-democratic qualities of collaborative economy initiatives. It was applied to 10 cases in the context of the city of Barcelona. The methods used in this study include mapping and typifying 10 collaborative economy cases in the city, structured and in-depth interviews, and a co-creation session. The results indicate the presence of several modalities for favoring democratic values in a collaborative economy.

This article presents a framework for evaluating the sustainability qualities of Platform Economy initiatives. It takes into account governance, economic model, technology, data policies, social responsibility and impact. The framework has been tested empirically in a sample of one hundred commons-based peer-to-peer production cases identified in Barcelona. Data collection was based on online ethnography and structured interviews. The results reveal the different levels and tendencies of pro-democratization. It appears that the cases that are more sustainable are also sustainable in other dimensions. The analysis found a correlation between governance and technology and data models, and it further demonstrated that governance is correlated with the economic model. Both results together indicate that the governance of a platform plays a central role in its overall approach.

In recent years, the platform economy has been recognised by researchers and governments around the world for its potential to contribute to the sustainable development of society. Yet, platform economy cases such as Uber, Airbnb, and Deliveroo have created a huge controversy over their socioeconomic impact, while other alternative models have been associated with a new form of cooperativism. In parallel, the United Nations are advocating global sustainable development by promoting Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), considering elements such as decent work, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, and fostering innovation. In any case, the SDGs have been also criticised for the lack of digital perspective. This dataset draws from two 2020 European projects’ (DECODE and PLUS) data collections and presents the possibility to compare different platform economy models and their connections with the SDGs.

Impact of information and communication technologies in agroecological cooperativism in Catalonia | Ricard Espelt, Ismael Peña-López, Oriol Miralbell, Toni Martín, Núria Vega | Agricultural Journals

Amid public concern surrounding the proprietary and exploitative use of personal data by corporations and public institutions, and its consequences from a sociotechnical perspective, narratives around digital commons have recently emerged, framing potential alternatives. This paper presents the co-creation of the Digital Democracy and Data Commons Manifesto through a collaborative writing sprint, drawing on principles of openness, diversity, and inclusivity. The manifesto articulates a technopolitical vision for data governance that prioritizes community control over data. We analyze the manifesto's evolution throughout the process, demonstrating its capacity to address contemporary concerns such as data extractivism and algorithmic governance. Our approach is based on participatory design methods, more concretely on a collaborative writing sprint, to co-create a manifesto on alternatives to current datafication, digital inequalities, and lack of citizen control over personal data. On the one hand, we describe the process of implementing a sprint approach for collaboratively writing a topic-specific manifesto, in the context of the broader EU project DECODE (Decentralised Citizen Owned Data Ecosystems). On the other hand, we present and analyse the main results from the content structure of the manifesto over its initial and final versions, which moved progressively as a cohesive text away from a scholarly and policy-oriented tone.