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Sharing Cities. Governance Models and Collaborative Practices in the Urban Contexts

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Sharing Cities. Governance Models and Collaborative Practices in the Urban Contexts Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca Dipartimento di Sociologia e Ricerca Sociale Dottorato di Ricerca in Società dell'Informazione (Qua_si) SHARING CITIES. GOVERNANCE MODELS AND COLLABORATIVE PRACTICES IN THE URBAN CONTEXTS Ph.D. Thesis Monica Bernardi 039475 Thesis Advisor: Prof. Davide Diamantini Thesis Tutor: Prof. Roberto Polillo Ciclo XVIII A.A. 2014-2015 Monica Bernardi – Sharing Cities. Governance models and collaborative practices in the urban contexts ii Monica Bernardi – Sharing Cities. Governance models and collaborative practices in the urban contexts ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost I want to express my special appreciation and thanks to my advisor, Professor Davide Diamantini, for the continuous support during my study and research, for his patience, motivation and personal cheering. His advices have been priceless and his hard questions incited me to widen my research from various perspectives. I would also to thank my tutor, Professor Roberto Polillo, for his punctual suggestions, and the Staff of the Qua_Si Centre for the backing and the technical support, in particular Giulia Mura for her patience and statistical help. A special thanks goes to Neal Gorenflo of Sherable, a guidance in the thesis field and a crucial support in getting in touch with the key actors of the City of Seoul. My sincere thanks also go to the Seoul Metropolitan Government, Social Innovation Division, and in particular to Ms. Jung A Kim. Her precious mediation and constant collaboration allowed me to collect data and administer the interviews in a context completely new. I cannot thank her enough for always being in contact, before, during and after my visiting period. My gratitude is also extended to the research fellow Dongwoo Lee of the Seoul University, a tremendous help in the city no matter the task or circumstance, and to Ph.D Jum-San Kim of the Kyungkee Development Institute for the hospitality. Creative Commons Korea and ShareHub have represented another incredible help and source of information and I want to thank in particular Ms. Kyeong Hee Seo and Ms. Nan Shil Kwon for assisting me and promoting my work. Coming back in Italy my appreciation and thanks go to the Municipality of Milan, especially to the Staff of the Economic Development, Innovation, University and Smart City Division, for the extreme availability during the collecting data phase and for the interest showed. Special mention goes to Marta Mainieri of Collaboraimo.org and Ivana Pais of Sharitaly that are hugely contributing at the Italian reflection on the sharing economy and from the first day of my research shared their knowledge with me providing insight and direction right up to the end. Next, I have an obligation to all the Italian Sharing Network that I had the good fortune to cross during my research and from which I absorbed the passion and the critical perspectives necessary to deepen the topic. Thank you. An appreciation goes also to the Korean Consulate in Milan and to the Italian Embassy in Seoul that acted as a bridge among the two countries, and to the Association Italia-Korea in Milan for introducing me firstly at the Korean culture. I wish to thank also all the people I interviewed both in Seoul and in Milan, for their availability that made possible the analysis. Last but not least, I would like to thank my family, my partner, my friends and colleagues for supporting and cheering me up throughout writing this thesis. iii Monica Bernardi – Sharing Cities. Governance models and collaborative practices in the urban contexts iv Monica Bernardi – Sharing Cities. Governance models and collaborative practices in the urban contexts ABSTRACT The dissertation describes and investigates the collaborative practices and the governance model adopted by cities that choose the sharing and collaborative economy as frontier of experimentation to try to solve some of the main urban challenges in economic, environmental and social terms. The widespread dissemination of ICTs, among the other effects, is generating solutions more open, transparent and participatory, based on sharing and collaboration and voted to savings, money redistribution and socialization. More and more cities are wondering about the potential of the emerging new service models, reflecting on their organizational and cultural weight and on how to integrate them into existing regulatory frameworks without limit or stifle their development. The work starts from an in-depth analysis of the concept of sharing economy, given its innovative nature that makes difficult to find a clearly, established and shared definition. The research highlights its benefits, potentialities, weaknesses and limits trying to offer a better understanding of the phenomenon and an overview of its intrinsic features, what, who and how to share in the city. The second part is dedicated to the analysis of the city context that is better able to embrace this type of alternative economy. The focus is on the smart and slow nature of the so-called sharing cities, on its governance model and on the role of the Public Administrations, extensively discussed. The third part presents two cases of cities that in a well-shaped way are supporting sharing economy services and platforms and are promoting themselves as sharing cities: Milan in Italy and Seoul in South Korea. These cities adopted two different approaches: in Milan the reflection has emerged spontaneously from the bottom and has found in the Public Administration an attentive listener and a strong supporter; in Seoul the initial push came from the Mayor and his administration, that launched a wave of innovation that is generating a real ecosystem of sharing. Even if the cities are different for culture, features and dimensions, the same rhetoric, labels, epistemic communities and strategies can be detected. The research was conducted adopting specific methodological tools: the analysis of the institutional and scientific materials and of other sources on the topic; the adoption of the participant observation’s approach in the study contexts; the administration of a questionnaire and the tool of the semi-structure interview to the key players of ‘Milan Sharing City’ and ‘Sharing City Seoul’. All these elements allowed retracing the origin of the process, its general framework, current outcomes and future possibilities. The dissertation aims to reconstruct the phenomenon in its constituent factors, given its recent insurgence, the momentum that is gaining and the lack of a mature scientific reflection on the topic. The ICTs penetration, the civil society engagement, the openness of the government, together with the emphasis on social innovation and the growing attention for the social economy, seem to be key ingredients to build a collaborative and sharing city. Local solutions adopted in the two case studies show the importance of the above ingredients and the absence of a “one-fit-all” solution. Instead, it is possible to build customized solutions, starting from the key ingredients, because the phenomenon allows to renegotiate with the local communities alternative governance practices more suitable for the context, and overcome established practices but less efficient. v Monica Bernardi – Sharing Cities. Governance models and collaborative practices in the urban contexts vi Monica Bernardi – Sharing Cities. Governance models and collaborative practices in the urban contexts ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .......................................................................................................... iii ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................... v INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................... 1 PART 1. THE RISE OF THE SHARING ECONOMY .................................................................. 7 1 SHARING ECONOMY & SHARING PRACTICES .............................................................. 9 1.1 What is exactly the Sharing Economy? Definition’ Problems ..................................... 10 1.2 Backgrounds elements .................................................................................................. 22 1.3 Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 29 2 BEYOND DEFINITIONS. WHY, WHO, WHAT IS SHARED… ........................................ 31 2.1 At the origin of the Sharing Economy. Key drivers. .................................................... 31 2.2 Who shares? .................................................................................................................. 32 2.3 Who are the sharers? .................................................................................................... 33 2.4 What is shared? ............................................................................................................. 35 3 SHARING YES, SHARING NO. All that glitters ain’t gold! ................................................ 39 PART 2. NEW CHALLENGES IN DIGITAL ERA .................................................................... 47 4 DIFFERENT IDEAS OF CITY. THE PATH TOWARD THE SHARING CITY ................ 49 4.1 Smart City ..................................................................................................................... 49 4.2 Human City ..................................................................................................................
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