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Building transformative alternatives in the digital economy: a global leader’s perspective
Author
Date 29 April 2025
The ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society (ADM+S) is proud to host renowned scholar and activist Associate Professor Trebor Scholz for a special presentation “From Vibe to Viability: A Methodology for Building Transformative Alternatives in the Digital Economy.”
A leading voice in the global movement for democratic digital infrastructure, Associate Professor Scholz will share insights from real-world cooperative experiments across more than 60 countries — showing that alternatives to extractive tech platforms are not just possible, but already functioning systems.
About the presentation
Every time you order a meal, obtain directions, query an AI chatbot, or access your child’s virtual classroom, you’re interacting with a multi-sided digital platform—and you trade in more than just time or money. You relinquish data. You perform unpaid labor.
And in nearly every case, that data, along with the profits, leaves your community and flows to distant companies with no stake in your local economy. But what if the digital economy worked differently—what if it respected privacy, strengthened local economies, and ensured communities benefited from the value they help create?
Drawing on a decade of research and hands-on collaboration, Scholz will showcase functioning models that challenge the status quo:
- A driver-owned ride-hailing platform in New York City
- A community telecoms cooperative in Mzamba, South Africa
- A care worker co-op in Sydney
- An artist-owned stock photography platform in Canada
- A food delivery system operated by 80 worker-owned cooperatives across Europe
These initiatives tackle urgent issues such as excessive workplace surveillance, loss of privacy, precarious gig work, and the deepening power of tech oligarchs — offering instead community-rooted alternatives built to last.
The presentation will also confront the hard realities of cooperative models: the struggle to maintain momentum, the challenges of scale, and the daily demands of democratic governance.
Event Details
Friday 16 May, 5.30pm- 7.30pm
The Green Brain, Building 16, RMIT Melbourne and Online
Register to attend
