Platforms such as Glovo, Deliveroo and Uber Eats that operate in the field of food delivery have set up in cities all around the world. The expansion of these platforms has had an impact on workers’ rights in what is considered as platform capitalism. Even then, democratic alternatives connected to the social and solidarity economy and digital commons exist. This article analyses the democratic qualities of four alternative food delivery platforms with headquarters in Europe (CoopCycle, CILFé, Crow and Mensakas). On the one hand, the results show that these platforms consider their workers’ rights; that is the main reason why they form an alternative to platform capitalism. On the other hand, the analysis shows that these platforms face important challenges, especially regarding their economic sustainability and scalability.
Since the 1980s, worldwide there have been numerous socioeconomic initiatives driven by ideas that differ from capitalist concepts such as accumulation of wealth, maximizing of profits and consumerism. These new initiatives appear all around the economic cycle: resources management, production, marketing, consumption, the financial system, the distribution of surplus and the circulation of currencies. One of the names most commonly associated with such initiatives is social and solidarity economy. In the future these initiatives may provide an alternative to the current dominant system.
All forms of social organization that have existed throughout human history have satisfied human needs in diferent ways. That is, they have given different answers to the three basic questions considered by Economics: "what to produce?", "how to produce it?" and "for whom to produce it?" The only trait that all forms of social organization have in common is their consideration of enterprises as the basic unit of production for goods and services.
Therefore, the way decisions are made in firms – the power game forever determining which interests are given priority over others – is key to understanding how the three above-mentioned questions are resolved. As such, faced with various proposals calling for an enconomy that prioritizes people over capital, we need to consider alternative ways in which business can operate.
In light of the above, this paper reviews the wide range of business models that criticize or question the principal of investor-owned firms, ie organizations whose main goal is not to make a profit whatever the cost. The paper provides an overview and comparison detailing the origins of such business models, which include co-operatives, labour-managed firms, B Corps, and Economy for the common good.