On April 22, the New School launched its newly founded Institute for the Cooperative Digital Economy (ICDE). The ICDE is part of the growing international network evolving around the Platform Cooperativism Consortium, which was co-founded by Trebor Scholz. Scholz is known for his groundbreaking work on Platform Cooperativism and labor relations in the digital age. He is an Associate Professor at the Milano School for Policy, Management, and Environment at the The New School in New York and holds a fellowship at Open Society Foundation.

In early 2019, Trebor Scholz, founding director of the ICDE, appointed Jonas Pentzien from platforms2share as research fellow at the Institute for the Cooperative Digital Economy. In April 2019, Jonas Pentzien travelled to the US to conduct field research and spend time at the newly founded institute. Towards the end of this research trip, Jonas Pentzien presented the current state of his research on state-market relations of the platform economy at the Institute’s launch event.

In his presentation, he sketched out his comparative study of legislative obstacles for platform cooperatives that he develops as part of his fellowship. The study investigates the question of how the emerging political and legal frameworks for the digital economy in the United States, France, and Germany affect platform cooperatives.

At the event, Jonas Pentzien also had the chance to connect with the other research fellows that had made the trip to NYC for the ICDE launch event. The other fellows focus on the following research topics:

• Amelia Evans from Boston, Massachusetts, will explore how to scale and fund the Cooperative Digital Economy through an investment fund
• Francis Mikwa Mwongela from Nairobi, Kenya, will explore the potential for platform cooperativism in Kenya
• Luciana Bruno from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, will write a case study on Cataki, a platform cooperative for waste pickers
• Morshed Mannan from Leiden, Netherlands, will study the law and governance of protocol cooperatives
• Minsun Ji from Denver, Colorado, will study the platform co-op movement in South Korea.

In November 2019, Jonas Pentzien will return to NYC in order to conduct further research and to participate at this year’s Platform Cooperativism conference. There, he will present the results of his comparative study.

Explore photos from Launch Event held in New York City on April 22 here, and view the full live stream of the evening here. Further information on the Institute for the Cooperative Digital Economy can be found here.