[Air-L] CfP Digital Solidarity Economies, Internet Policy Review Special Issue

[Rafael Do Nascimento Grohmann]

Hi AoIR,

We would like to invite you to submit an abstract for the special issue we are editing on digital solidarity economies for Internet Policy Review journal. The guest editors are me, Belen Albornoz (Equador), Denise Kasparian (Argentina) and Ricard Espelt (Spain).

Link: https://policyreview.info/node/1808


Call for Papers: Digital solidarity economies
Special Issue of Internet Policy Review

Abstract submission deadline: November 15, 2024
Full paper submission deadline: April 15, 2025
Recent years have seen not only an expansion of the platform power in the world of work but also the construction of alternatives to them. In addition to regulatory frameworks, workers and communities, not without difficulties and tensions, are organising from below to design, develop and govern their own technologies. These efforts span data, platforms, artificial intelligence (AI) or other technological forms. Besides workers and communities, practitioners, activists, scholars and policymakers around the world have been engaged in projects related to notions such as platform cooperativism (Scholz, 2023), alternative platforms (Sandoval, 2020), worker-owned platforms (Hauben, 2020; Grohmann, 2023), among others.
However, to fully understand digital solidarity economies, it is important to differentiate these concepts from earlier digital phenomena, such as the Web 2.0 era, when platforms like Airbnb and Uber initially adopted solidarity-based ideals but eventually evolved into conventional market-driven entities (Srnicek, 2016; Sadowski, 2020; Steinberg, Zhang, Mukherjee, 2024). We aim to underscore the distinct characteristics of digital solidarity economies by focusing on their roots in alternative economic traditions, their commitment to equity, and their emphasis on democratic governance and shared ownership.
Solidarity economies can present ambivalent relationships with conventional business environments. They can sometimes open the door to business models that undermine the solidarity principles they were originally based on (Sandoval, 2020). For instance, as cooperatives are simultaneously associations of people and collectively operated companies (Vuotto, 1994), they face the challenge of developing strategies that would enable the adoption of democratic operation rules with an adequate development of management structures that are operational and effective throughout time (Petriella, 1998).This dynamic tension will be a key area of investigation in this special issue.
We will also expand on the comparative governance forms found within digital solidarity economies, exploring differences from other platform models (Scholz, 2016). By incorporating key literature from fields like digital labour (De Stefano, 2016; Grohmann & Qiu, 2020, Jarrett, 2021), platform studies (Chen et al., 2024, Grohmann & Salvagni, 2023), platform cooperativism (Scholz, 2023; Barbosa et al., 2024, Rubim & Milanez, 2024; Kasparian, forthcoming), and social/solidarity economy movements (Utting, 2015, Gualavisí & Vizuete-Sandoval, 2023), this special issue seeks to offer an academically robust foundation for understanding these economies.
The term solidarity economy itself has different origins across geographical and theoretical contexts. Anchored in the Latin American tradition (Miller, 2009; Coraggio, 2021), solidarity economies encompass self-managed experiences with democratic governance and alternative political, cultural, and economic visions. Meanwhile, in Europe and North America, solidarity economies often intersect with social and cooperative movements (Utting, 2015). To reflect this diversity, we propose to view digital solidarity economies as a plural concept, with contributions highlighting marginalised groups' efforts, including racialised, gendered, Indigenous, and Majority World people (Hossein & Pearson, 2023).
If we cannot talk about only one “platform capitalism”, as Steinberg, Zhang and Mukherjee (2024) suggest in their frame of “platform capitalism and platform cultures”, we cannot talk about only one alternative to them, geographically, politically and economically speaking. This means understanding the “varieties of co-operativism” (Hossein, 2024) and platform cooperativism (Barbosa et al, 2024).
This notion has implications for researchers, workers, communities and policymakers alike. For example, the Social Economy Action Plan (European Commission, 2021) considers the uniqueness of the solidarity economy. In this way, the Plan for the Promotion of the Social and Solidarity Economy 2021-2023 (Barcelona City Council, 2021), includes strategies to reinforce digital platforms based on the solidarity economy. Also, the Brazilian government, through the Secretary of Solidarity Economy, has just launched a primer entitled Digital Solidarity Economy, in order to inform the national policy on this topic.
This special issue seeks to advance the understanding of digital solidarity economies by addressing both their digital transformation and their role in fostering a more solidarity-based digital economy. We invite empirical studies, theoretical work and policy-oriented research to build upon these perspectives.
Scope of the special issue
For this special issue, we invite contributions from various parts of the world that focus theoretical, empirical and policy efforts on digital solidarity economies. This may include (but are not limited to) the following topics:

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Sectoral applications and case studies
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Digital solidarity economies in specific sectors (e.g., culture, agriculture, technology).
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Case studies addressing financial, political, governance, and technological challenges.
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Historical and geographical perspectives
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Historicisation of digital solidarity economies globally.
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Regional differences and local adaptations of digital solidarity economy models.
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Digital solidarity economies in relation to frameworks on diverse and inclusive economies.
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Intersectionality in digital solidarity economies.
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Black solidarity economy and the digital.
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Policy-making for digital solidarity economies.
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Governance of data and AI in digital solidarity economies.
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Technological innovation and infrastructure in digital solidarity economies.
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Digital sovereignty in the context of solidarity economies.
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Relationships between digital solidarity economies and social, solidarity, and popular economies.
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Tensions and dialogues between different movements and institutions.
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Methodological challenges in researching digital solidarity economies.
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Theoretical advancements in understanding digital solidarity economies.
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Cross-sector and cross-country comparative studies.
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Networks and federations in digital solidarity economies.
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Diverse and inclusive economies
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Policy and governance
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Innovation and infrastructure
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Institutional and movement relationships
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Methodological and theoretical contributions:
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Comparative studies and networks:

Researchers, practitioners, and policymakers from a broad range of disciplines and perspectives, including sociology, economics, political science, law, digital humanities, socioeconomics, media and communication studies, critical studies, data science, and computer science, etc., are invited to submit proposals. We also strongly encourage non-native English speakers to submit proposals.

Special issue editors
Belén Albornoz, Professor, Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences FLACSO Ecuador
Ricard Espelt, Associate Professor, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya
Rafael Grohmann, Assistant Professor, University of Toronto
Denise Kasparian, Assistant Professor, University of Buenos Aires, Assistant Researcher, CONICET

Important dates

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400-500 words abstracts should be sent to digitalsolidarityeconomies at gmail.com<mailto:digitalsolidarityeconomies at gmail.com> by 15 November 2024. The abstracts should delineate the issue or research question to be discussed, the case study on which the article builds, the methodological or critical framework used, an indication of the expected findings or conclusions.
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Decisions will be sent to the authors by 15 December 2024.
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There will be an online workshop between January and March 2025, on a date to be confirmed.
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Full papers of the selected abstracts should be submitted by 15 April 2025.
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Submissions must be around 6,000 words in length and have to follow the submission guidelines of the Internet Policy Review. They will be peer-reviewed between April and July 2025.
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The planned publication date of this special issue is Q4 2025.

References
Barbosa, A. et al. (2024). Owning Platform Cooperativism(s): With More Voices, Sans Tech Solutionism. Bot Populi. https://botpopuli.net/owning-platform-cooperativisms-with-more-voices-sans-tech-solutionism/
Chen, J. et al (2024). Introducing Platforms & Society. Platforms & Society, Online First.
Coraggio, J. L. (2021). Introducción. In: Coraggio, J. L. (ed), Miradas sobre la economía social y solidaria en América Latina. Buenos Aires: CLACSO-UNGS, pp. 11-15.
De Stefano, V. (2016). The rise of the "just-in-time workforce": On-demand work, crowdwork, and labor protection in the "gig economy". Comparative Labor Law & Policy Journal, 37(3), 471-504.
Grohmann, R. (2023). Not just platform, nor cooperatives: Worker-owned technologies from below. Communication, Culture & Critique, 16 (4).
Grohmann, R. & Salvagni, J. (2023). Trabalho por plataformas digitais. São Paulo: Edições Sesc.
Grohmann, R. & Qiu, J. (2020). Contextualizing Platform Labor. Contracampo: Brazilian Journal of Communication, 39 (10).
Gualavisí, B. and Vizuete-Sandoval, D. (2023). Pensar los desafíos de las Plataformas Cooperativas Solidarias en América Latina desde una aproximación situada: en busca de otros futuros. In: Curso Otra economía digital es posible. Experiencias y desafíos de las plataformas digitales cooperativas solidarias en América Latina. Quito: Fairwork Ecuador-Flacso. Available at: https://ctslab.org/otra-economia-digital-es-posible-experiencias-y-desafios-de-cooperativas-solidarias-de-plataforma-en-america-latina/
Hauben, H. (Eds). (2020). The platform economy and precarious work. European Parliament.
Hossein, C. (2024). The Banker Ladies: Vanguards of Solidarity Economics and Community-Based Banks. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Hossein, C. & Pearson, M. (2023). Black feminists in the third sector: Here is why we choose to use the term solidarity economy. The Review of Black Political Economy, 50 (2).
Jarrett, K. (2021). Digital Labor. New York: Polity.
Kasparian, D. (forthcoming). Avenues for social empowerment: the cooperative model for app-based food delivery and beyond. In: Vandaele K. and Rainone S. (eds.), The Elgar companion to regulating platform work. Insights from the food delivery sector. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2025.
Miller, E. (2009). Solidarity Economy: Key Concepts and Issues. In Solidarity Economy: Building Alternatives for People and Planet.
Petriella, Á. 1998. Nuevas preguntas y nuevas respuestas del movimiento cooperativo a fin de siglo. Revista Idelcoop, 115. Available at: https://www.idelcoop.org.ar/revista/115/nuevas-preguntas-y-nuevas-respuestas-del-movimiento-cooperativo-fin-siglo.
Rubim, E. & Milanez, L. (2024). Economia Solidaria Digital. Rosa Luxemburg Foundation/ DigiLabour/ Brazil’s Ministry of Labor. https://www.gov.br/trabalho-e-emprego/pt-br/noticias-e-conteudo/2024/Agosto/mte-apoia-livro-sobre-politicas-sociais-de-economia-solidaria-digital/livro_economia_digital_solidaria_v2_comprimido.pdf
Sadowski, J. (2020). The internet of landlords: Digital platforms and new mechanisms of rentier capitalism. Antipode, 52 (2).
Sandoval, M. (2020). From passionate labour to compassionate work: Cultural co-ops, do what you love and social change. European Journal of Cultural Studies, 23(2), 288-305.
Scholz, T. (2016). Platform Cooperativism: Challenging the Corporate Sharing Economy. Rosa Luxemburg Foundation
Scholz, T. (2023). Own This: How Platform Cooperatives Help Workers Build a Democratic Internet. London: Verso.
Srnicek, N. (2016). Platform Capitalism. Polity Press.
Steinberg, M. Zhang, L. & Mukherjee, R. (2024). Platform Capitalisms and Platform Cultures. International Journal of Cultural Studies. Online first.
Utting, P. (2015). Social and Solidarity Economy: Beyond the Fringe. Zed Books.
Vuotto, M. (1994). Paradojas de la organización cooperativa. In: Giarraca, N. (ed.), Acciones colectivas y organización cooperativa. Reflexiones y estudios de caso. Buenos Aires: Centro Editor de América Latina, pp. 56-80.



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dr. Rafael Grohmann

Assistant Professor of Media Studies

Department of Arts, Culture and Media<https://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/acm/rafael-grohmann>

Faculty of Information<https://ischool.utoronto.ca/profile/rafael-grohmann/>

University of Toronto

2024-2025 Faculty Fellow, Queer and Trans Research Lab, Bonham Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies, University of Toronto<http://qtrl%20Cohort%202024-25%20–%20Mark%20S.%20Bonham%20Centre%20for%20Sexual%20Diversity%20Studies>

Leader, DigiLabour<https://digilabour.com.br/>

Founding Editor, Platforms & Society<https://journals.sagepub.com/home/PNS>

Principal Investigator, Worker-Owned Intersectional Platforms (WOIP)<https://digilabour.com.br/worker-owned-intersectional-platforms-woip/>

Researcher, Fairwork<https://fair.work/> <https://fair.work/>

International Experts Coordinator, Platform Work Inclusion Living Lab<https://pwill.eu/>