[PAPER PUBLICATION] Beyond the algorithm: Cooperative alternatives to platform capitalism in urban delivery workforces

18 February 2026 By

INCA researchers from the University of Barcelona have published a new paper entitled “Beyond the algorithm: Cooperative alternatives to platform capitalism in urban delivery workforces” in the journal Digital Geography and Society.

The paper examines two cooperative initiatives in Barcelona—Mensakas and Les Mercedes—as alternatives to the precarious conditions in the urban delivery sector, typically dominated by platform capitalism (e.g., Uber Eats, Deliveroo, Glovo). The authors aim to understand how these cooperatives organise work and govern technological tools differently from dominant platforms; which organisational, social, and political dimensions underpin their functioning as alternatives; and which possibilities and constraints shape their efforts to democratise digital labour.

The study concludes that cooperatives like Mensakas and Les Mercedes can offer grounded pathways to resist algorithmic exploitation and imagine fairer forms of urban delivery work. 

The study identifies several key pillars underpinning these alternatives:

  1. Instrumental use of technology: Despite differences in technological infrastructure (Mensakas uses open-source software, while Les Mercedes relies on external platforms), the findings suggest that both cooperatives use technology instrumentally for human coordination rather than as a tool for algorithmic management or worker control. Both initiatives place human coordination, solidarity, and democratic decision-making at the centre of work organisation.
  2. Labour conditions and economic constraints: Unlike dominant platforms, these cooperatives provide formal employment contracts and social security. However, the researchers note significant challenges: both organizations struggle to provide wages significantly above the Minimum Interprofessional Wage (SMI) or consistent full-time hours. They face structural challenges linked to market pressures, limited resources, and asymmetric competition with investor-funded platforms. 
  3. Professional identity and skills recognition: The findings suggest that these cooperatives allow workers to reclaim their professional identity. Delivery work can thus transform from a precarious, algorithm-led task into an occupation in which workers’ expertise in logistics and urban navigation is recognised and valued.
  4. Political roots and solidarity networks: The paper highlights the political origin of these projects, particularly Mensakas, which emerged from the RidersXDerechos union struggle. Their survival is not merely commercial but relies on strong emotional bonds, a sense of belonging, and solidarity networks that counteract the atomization of platform work.
  5. Physical hubs & community Beyond logistics, the physical headquarters of these cooperatives serve as essential spaces for socialization and collective support. This provides a “spatial fix” to the precariousness of platform delivery, where workers typically wait in public spaces without infrastructure or a sense of professional identity.

In summary, the paper concludes that despite facing structurally unbalanced competition from large corporate actors and other challenges, these initiatives show that cooperativism can be more than just a strategy for improving working conditions in digital environments, it can also serve as a structural proposal for democratising the digital economy and subverting the logic of precarisation, fragmentation, and individualisation of labour. They represent an organised form of resistance against new forms of exploitation emerging from data capitalism and offer concrete tools to build fairer forms of employment in the digital age.

DOI: 10.1016/j.diggeo.2026.100157