[Report] “Lessons From Italy: The Italian Platform Cooperative Ecosystem and the Role of Municipal Institutions” by Pietro Ghirlanda
Cite the Report:
Ghirlanda, Pietro. 2023. Lessons From Italy: The Italian Platform Cooperative Ecosystem and the Role of Municipal Institutions. Platform.coop. New York City: Platform Cooperativism Consortium. https://ia801606.us.archive.org/23/items/pietro-ghirlanda/
In his 2022/2023 ICDE Fellowship Report, Pietro Ghirlanda emphasizes the crucial role of municipalities in promoting the development of platform cooperatives that offer public welfare services. He argues that cooperative data management and democratic, polycentric governance structures are essential for the success of these cooperatives. Ghirlanda further recommends the creation of digital platforms that are cooperatively managed within traditional cooperatives and forming transnational alliances between them to maximize their impact.
In his report, Ghirlanda focuses on the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy and evaluates the thesis that municipalities can provide support for cooperative enterprises by offering resources and fostering innovation. The mayor of the region’s capital city, Bologna, Matteo Lepore, has proposed the creation of the Italian Co-op Valley, an urban ecosystem for a mutual and collaborative digital economy that provides an alternative to Silicon Valley’s extractive business model, as a proponent of the “civil economy.” Ghirlanda uses this regional perspective to highlight the potential of local governments to play a critical role in the development of cooperative digital platforms that serve the public good.