CERGAS Seminar "Welfare Platforms: a global comparative analysis"
Sharing economy platforms such as Blablacar, Couchsurfing, Wikipedia, Tripadvisor, Togoodtogo have become increasingly widespread and they differ from digital marketplaces like Amazon for their sharing perspective. This is part of a broader trend which is changing our lives by transforming both the private and public sphere. Nowadays, the so-called “Platform Economy” is indeed a well-established reality that involves most of the major economic sectors, from commerce, entertainment and transport to education, government and healthcare. In this context, our research examines the phenomenon of Local Welfare Platforms, based on sharing economy logics. These are physical and/or digital entities addressed to various targets of the population, with particular focus on vulnerable people (i.e. disabled, elderly and young people, patients and their caregivers, etc.). These platforms can have several purposes, such as providing social services, informing about a relevant topic, advocating for a specific group of citizens, building communities and helping governments in publishing open data. The methodology adopted in this research is threefold: a) literature review of peer-reviewed academic papers concerning public and private service platforms (2011-2023); b) creation of a framework to interpret cases through comparative analysis; c) data collection, analysis and discussion. In order to classify these platforms and describe their emerging features and goals, we built a database of more than 400 units, taken from a global landscape. By identifying the dominant platform models, we thus strive to understand their added value to local welfare ecosystems and capture the role of Public Administration in this new game.
Speaker:
Agnese Palvarini (M.Sc.) is an Academic Fellow in the Department of Social and Political Sciences at Bocconi University. She is involved in the MUSA research project (Spoke 6 – Innovation for Sustainable and Inclusive Societies) where, together with Prof. Francesco Longo, analyzes the role of Public Administration in the development of local welfare platforms. Beyond that, her research interests concern patient journey mapping, patient-centered care, prevention policies and behavioral healthcare.
Link zoom: https://unibocconi-it.zoom.us/j/93175052089?pwd=MWRIY2M4dUorK2VwYVprcXp4U2hRZz09