3FOOD

Third Industrial Revolution Consulting Group
Cooperatives offer a sharp contrast to the conventional vertically integrated market enterprise,
allowing all individuals engaged in the sharing process to also share the revenue generated by
the activity. Platform cooperatism is more fully fleshed out by peer-to-peer (P2P) theorists,
practitioners and co-Founders of the P2P Foundation, Michel Bauwens and Vasilis Kostakis, who
illuminate important distinctions between different economic and social forms of the
sharing/collaborative and rental/on-demand/gig economies, in the matrix below. The two axes
highlight: 1) the tensions between centralized and distributed control of the infrastructure; and,
2) the polarity between capital buildup or flow and Commons accumulation or circulation.
Four future scenarios for a collaborative economy
Source: Kostakis & Bauwens (2014) 354
Netarchical capitalism (NC) is defined as “centralized control of a distributed infrastructure
with an orientation towards the accumulation of capital. Netarchical capital is that fraction of
capital which enables and empowers cooperation and P2P dynamics, but through proprietary
platforms that are under central control. While individuals will share through these platforms,
they have no control, governance or ownership over the design and the protocol of these
networks/platforms, which are proprietary. Typically under conditions of netarchical capitalism,
354 Kostakis, Vasilis & Michel Bauwens (2014) Network Society and Future Scenarios for a Collaborative Economy,
Palgrave Macmillan.
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