Profile
Trebor Scholz is a scholar-activist and Associate Professor for Culture & Media at The New School in New York City. His book Uber-Worked and Underpaid. How Workers Are Disrupting the Digital Economy (Polity, 2016) develops an analysis of the challenges posed by digital labor and introduces the concept of platform cooperativism as a way of joining the peer-to-peer and co-op movements with online labor markets while insisting on communal ownership and democratic governance. His next book will focus on the prospects of the cooperative online economy. His edited volumes include Digital Labor: The Internet as Playground and Factory (Routledge, 2013), and Ours to Hack and to Own: Platform Cooperativism. A New Vision for the Future of Work and a Fairer Internet (eds. with Nathan Schneider, OR Books, 2016). In 2009, Scholz started to convene the influential digital labor conferences at The New School. Today, he frequently presents on the future of work, solidarity, and the Internet to media scholars, cooperativists, lawyers, activists, designers, developers, union leaders, and policymakers worldwide. Scholz is a member of the Barcelona Advisory Council on Technological Sovereignty. His articles and ideas have appeared in The Nation, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Le Monde, and The Washington Post.
Books
Scholz, Trebor. Uberworked and Underpaid: How Workers Are Disrupting the Digital Economy. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2016. Print.
Scholz, Trebor. Platform Cooperativism: Challenging the Corporate Sharing Economy. New York City: Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung, 2016. Print.
Scholz, Trebor. “Platform Cooperativism: Challenging the Corporate Sharing Economy”. Rosa Luxemburg Siftung. 1/1/2016. English | Spanish (or Spanish print version) | German | Italian (Chinese, Portuguese, Dutch, French forthcoming)
Edited Volumes
Scholz, Trebor and Schneider, Nathan. eds. Ours to Hack and to Own: Platform Cooperativism. A New Vision for the Future of Work and a Fairer Internet. New York City: OR Books, 2016. Print.
Scholz, Trebor. ed. Digital Labor: The Internet as Playground and Factory. New York City: Routledge, 2013. Print.
Articles
Scholz, Trebor. “A Platform for Revolution”, The Nation. 2015. Scholz, Trebor. "Think Outside the Boss" Public Seminar. 2015.
Scholz, Trebor. "Platform Cooperativism vs. the Sharing Economy" Medium. 11/2014.
Scholz, Trebor and Schneider, Nathan. “The Internet Needs a New Economy,” The Next System Project (2015).
Scholz, Trebor. Pasquale, Frank. Serfing the Web: On-Demand Workers Deserve a Place at the Table. The Nation. July 16, 2015.
Scholz, Trebor and Schneider, Nathan. “The People’s Uber: Why The Sharing Economy Must Share Ownership”, Fast Co-Exist (2015).
Scholz, Trebor. “The Future of Work: The People’s Uber”, Pacific Standard. 2015.
Lectures
2016
“The Future of Work,” Talk on the Future of Work, Federal Reserve Bank, New York, New York, November 17.
Lecture, International Summit of Co-operatives (ICA), Quebec City, Quebec, Canada, October 2-3.
Remote lecture, Launch of Chinese publication of Platform Cooperativism, A Primer, Chinese University in Hong Kong, September 16.
Keynote, “Platform Cooperativism,” Demos, Helsinki, Finland, August 12.
"How Platform Cooperativism Can Unleash the Network,” Unpacking Organization: Cybernetics, Logistics, and Labour Circulation, Leuphana University, Luneberg, Germany, June 29
Panelist (skype), “Innovative Models of Worker Ownership: Coop/ESOP Hybrids, Platform Cooperatives, Trust Models, Multistakeholder Cooperatives,” Beyster Symposium, La Jolla, California, June 27.
Lecture, “Platform Cooperativism,” Archive of Cooperativism, Bologna, Italy, June 22.
“The ABCs of Platform Cooperativism: On Building the Cooperative Internet,” Citizen Data Lab, Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, Amsterdam, June 16.
“How Platform Cooperativism Can Unleash the Network,” D-Lab, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, June 15.
Lecture, Open Circular Economy Summit, Barcelona, Spain, June 11.
“Platform Cooperativism,” Barcelona City Council, Barcelona, Spain, June.
“Beyond the Border,” Scuola Cooperativa Montelupo, Florence, Italy, June.
Lecture, Teilen und Tauschen Conference. Kultursymposium by Goethe Institute Weimar, Germany, June 1-3.
“How Platform Cooperativism Can Unleash the Network,” Digital Bauhaus, Weimar, Germany, June 3.
“From the Sharing Economy to Platform Cooperativism,” Homo Cooperans 2.0, Brussels, Belgium, June 6.
Keynote Address, “Post-capitalism, Digital Commons and Democratic Cities,” D-CENT Project Conference, Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain, May 27. (with “Bifo,” Evgeny Morozov, and Paul Mason)
Lecture. International Workshop on Union Strategies in the Platform Economy, IG Metal, Frankfurt, Germany, April.
Lecture. “Platform Cooperativism for a Fairer Future of Work,” Center for Civic Media, MIT, Boston. April.
“Platform Cooperativism for a Fairer Future of Work,” in-class lecture, Harvard Law School, April.
Keynote Address, “Das Kooperative Internet Mitgestalten,” Re:Publica, Berlin, Germany, March.
“Digital Labor and Internet Activism,” Big Data and Civic Engagement, Chinese University of Hong Kong/Baptist University, Hong Kong, February.
Panelist, “Ours to Govern and to Own,” Goethe Institute, New York, New York, January 20.
Conferences Convened
2009 - 2016 Platformcoop.net
2012 Mobilityshifts.net
Institutions
Platform Cooperativism Consortium