Institute for the Cooperative Digital Economy

About Us

The digital economy is rapidly changing the way we work, with advances in artificial intelligence, automation, and data processing shifting responsibilities from workers to machines. To navigate these disruptions, we need research that imagines, builds, and explores new visions of fair work. One potential solution is the adoption of cooperative principles in the digital economy.

The cooperative digital economy is an under-researched area in the fields of anthropology, political science, sociology, history, and economics. This emerging field is closely linked with labor studies and cooperative studies. In business schools, this field of study is situated in the areas of finance, entrepreneurship, and organizational studies. In law schools, the pertinent areas are governance and corporate structure.

The Institute for Cooperative Digital Economy is committed to filling these research gaps by providing platform cooperatives with applied and theoretical knowledge, education, and policy analysis. We are dedicated to developing new ideas for a fair future of work based on relevant research and imaginative proposals. Our goal is to build a body of knowledge that advances platform ownership and democratic governance for both workers and all internet users.

ICDE runs a fellowship program, currently in its third cohort. Research reports (2021, 2022) from fellows and research sprints are examples of our work. We influenced the policy thinking and vision of major political parties in several countries. As an example of this work, study this policy paper and explore our current Fellows, Affiliated Researchers, Affiliated Faculty, and Council of Advisors.