Platform cooperatives ensure caring in the sharing economy

s+ Whether it is couch surfing, baby-sitting, pizza delivery or getting Ikea furniture assembled by somebody who can do it better, platforms can mediate all kinds of voluntary or professional services.s+Platform work is at the heart of the ‘sharing economy’. But while this may sound like a new form of digital solidarity, recent focus on these platforms has fallen on the precarious social conditions of its micro-tasked workers: sham self-employment, high levels of income insecurity, a lack of adequate equipment for work, no access to social insurance and poor facilities. In an attempt to avoid these pitfalls, platform workers have started to establish cooperatives that are helping to ensure the sharing economy is also a caring economy.