This session explores how artificial intelligence is reshaping the future of cooperatives and social enterprises—posing both challenges and opportunities for democratic governance, equity, and collective agency.
Artem Zhiganov introduces the Open Facilitation Library, a Metagov initiative creating open, machine-readable standards for facilitation practices that strengthen collective intelligence and democratic self-rule. Clara Punzi examines the double-edged nature of digital labor platforms, showing how technological flexibility often coexists with deepened inequality and precarity. Canan Urhan highlights the emancipatory potential of AI when guided by cooperative principles, focusing on data-driven tools that enable communities—especially in sectors like agriculture—to reclaim agency and co-create technology for shared benefit.
Together, these contributions reveal how cooperatives and social enterprises can respond to the AI overhaul by embedding democratic values into digital systems rather than being displaced by them. Moderated by Esra Arslan Seyithanoğlu
Speakers
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Artem Zhiganov Developer of Harmonica; Contributor at Metagov Interoperable Deliberative Tools Program
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Clara Punzi Ph.D. Student in AI for Society, Scuola Normale Superiore
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Esra Arslan Seyithanoğlu Board Member of Needs Map
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Angela Chukunzira Tech and society fellow at the Mozilla Foundation
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Canan Urhan Senior Research Fellow, Istanbul Technical University