Beyond the algorithm: Cooperative alternatives to platform capitalism in urban delivery workforces

Abstract

Digital labour platforms have transformed urban delivery by expanding precarious labour regimes grounded in algorithmic management, outsourcing, and deregulation. In Barcelona, an emblematic setting of platform capitalism, these transformations have generated both intensified precarisation and new worker-led responses. Within this context, delivery cooperatives have emerged as organisational alternatives that seek to reconfigure digital labour around democratic governance, collective autonomy, and a more human-centred use of technology. This paper examines two such initiatives, Mensakas and Les Mercedes, with the aim of understanding (1) how they organise work and govern technological tools differently from dominant platforms; (2) which organisational, social, and political dimensions underpin their functioning as alternatives; and (3) what possibilities and constraints shape their efforts to democratise digital labour. Methodologically, the study adopts a qualitative design combining longitudinal ethnography (2016–2024), fifteen semi-structured interviews, and five focus groups carried out in 2024. This triangulated approach makes it possible to analyse working conditions, spatial practices, and workers' narratives concerning cooperative organisation in a highly competitive urban logistics environment. The findings show that, despite relying on different technological infrastructures, one based on open-source cooperative software and the other on external private tools, both initiatives place human coordination, solidarity, and democratic decision-making at the centre of work organisation. Their physical workplaces operate as spaces of belonging and collective support, contrasting with the fragmented, public space waiting characteristic of platform labour. At the same time, these cooperatives face structural challenges linked to market pressures, limited resources, and asymmetric competition with investor-funded platforms. Overall, the study argues that cooperative organisation can offer grounded pathways to resist algorithmic exploitation and imagine fairer forms of urban delivery work. This research forms part of the INCA project Increase corporate political responsibility and accountability (European Union under G.A. No. 101061653).