WP 4 | CASE STUDY Report: Shareable's Sharing Cities
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WP 4 | CASE STUDY Report: Shareable’s Sharing Cities Theme [ssh.2013.3.2-1][Social Innovation- Empowering People, changing societies] Project Full Title: “Transformative Social Innovation Theory project” Grant Agreement n. 613169 This project has received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement no 613169 Transit – Grant agreement n. 613169 – WP 4 | CASE STUDY Report: Shareable’s Sharing Cities 1 Suggested citation: De Majo, C., Elle, M., Hagelskjær Lauridsen,E., and Zuijderwijk, L. (2016) WP4 | CASE STUDY Report: Shareable’s Sharing Cities. TRANSIT: EU SSH.2013.3.2-1 Grant agreement no: 613169. Acknowledgements: We especially thank Nils Roemen, Tom Llewellyn, Neal Gorenflo, David de Ugarte and Maria Rodriguez and all the other people we talked to during our visits for their time, ideas and other contributions to this report. Date: 3rd of October in 2016 Authors: Claudio de Majo, Morten Elle, Erik Hagelskjær Lauridsen, Linda Zuijderwijk Lead partner: IHS Participating partners: AAU Contact person: Linda Zuijderwijk IHS E-mail: [email protected] Phone: +31104082945 Disclaimer: “The content of this publication does not reflect the official opinion of the European Union. Responsibility for the information and views expressed therein lies entirely with the author(s).” Transit – Grant agreement n. 613169 – WP 4 | CASE STUDY Report: Shareable’s Sharing Cities 2 Table of contents 1 Introduction to Shareable’s Sharing Cities ....................................... 4 1.1 Literature review ............................................................................................................... 4 1.2 Case demarcation ............................................................................................................... 5 1.3 Overview and structure of the report ........................................................................ 8 2 Methodology ............................................................................................. 10 2.1 Researcher relations to the case ............................................................................... 10 2.2 Methods............................................................................................................................... 12 3 Transnational network(ing): Shareable’s Sharing Cities .......... 15 3.1 Emergence of Shareable – Sharing cities ............................................................... 15 3.2 TSI dynamics ..................................................................................................................... 22 3.3 Agency in (T)SI ................................................................................................................. 28 3.4 Summary ............................................................................................................................. 32 4 Local Initiative Sharing City Nijmegen ............................................ 36 4.1 Emergence of Social innovation (SI) and SI-initiative ...................................... 36 4.2 TSI dynamics ..................................................................................................................... 45 4.3 Agency in (T)SI ................................................................................................................. 48 4.4 Summary, synthesis, conclusion ................................................................................ 53 5 Local Initiative Sharing Gijon ............................................................. 55 5.1 Emergence Sharing Gijon ............................................................................................. 55 5.2 TSI dynamics ..................................................................................................................... 66 5.3 Agency in (T)SI ................................................................................................................. 71 5.4 Summary ............................................................................................................................. 74 6 Synthesis .................................................................................................... 77 6.1 Emergence of Social innovation (SI). ....................................................................... 77 6.2 TSI dynamics ..................................................................................................................... 78 6.3 Agency in (T)SI ................................................................................................................. 78 7 References ................................................................................................. 82 8 Annex .......................................................................................................... 83 A. Bibliography for Shareable’s Sharing Cities, Sharing City Nijmegen and Sharing Gijon 83 B. List of interviews ..................................................................................................................... 86 C. List of meetings and events attended .............................................................................. 88 Transit – Grant agreement n. 613169 – WP 4 | CASE STUDY Report: Shareable’s Sharing Cities 3 1 Introduction to Shareable’s Sharing Cities 1.1 Literature review Within ‘Shareable – Sharing Cities’, the concept of the ‘sharing economy’ or the ‘sharing transformation’, is recurring in the analyses of both the transnational network as well as the local manifestations. In other words, we suggest that these concepts are the actors’ social constructions of reality, through which they aim to understand certain practices ‘within’ the network and the local manifestation. In this literature review, we aim to present an overview of the conceptual history of the ‘sharing economy’, ‘collaborative consumption’ and commons. Collaborative consumption The concept of ‘collaborative consumption’ started to appear in literature in the late 1970s, thanks to the work of behavioural economists Felson and Spaeth in the attempt to describe the interactions of productive activities between members of communities. Felson and Spaeth’s thought is indebted to sociologist Hawley’s (1950) theory of “community structure” where he discussed the relations occurring between sustenance activities in relation to the environment. Hawley emphasized the role of Community as the set of relationships between local actors aimed at satisfying their daily needs (1950: 180). Every member of these communities according to Hawley occupies a niche, playing a functional role based upon symbiotic or commensalism relationships. However, as noticed by Felson & Spaeth, Hawley made no major effort trying to link his theory to socioeconomic concepts such as consumption and production, limiting his analysis to sustenance activities (1978: 614). More than a quarter century later, in 1978, drawing on Hawley’s theoretical framework, economists Felson and Spaeth (1978) coined the term “Collaborative Consumption” – a theoretical conceptualization of an alternative economic model based on collaborative production and consumption. According to Felson and Spaeth, acts of collaborative consumption are “those events in which one or more persons consume economic goods or services in the process of engaging in joint activities with one or more others” (1978: 614). In other words, different routine activities – i.e. eating and drinking together or sharing a washing machine – create the circumstances in which collaborative consumption occurs, thus “allowing people to translate personal inclinations into actions” (Felson & Spaeth 1978: 614). Consumer behaviour should not be simply analysed from an individual perspective, but should also try to reflect efforts of people in joining in different activities with each other (Felson & Spaeth 1978,: 616). However, the question is what and how the impact of ‘collaborative consumption’ can be understood in an era in which the dominant social relations point into processes and practices of ‘individualization’ (Beck& Beck - Gernsheim 2001). ‘Sharing Economy’ In the mid-2000s, with the creation of the first collaborative business structures centred on collaborative consumption and economics, especially in the digital industry (for example by PricewaterhouseCoopers) (Benkler 2002) the term ‘sharing economy’ began to appear. Benkler contributed to that with the formulation of ‘commons-based peer production’ (2002) and later of “shareable goods” (2004). It is in this context, that the concept of collaborative consumption was revived by Algar (2007) and by Bostman & Rogers (2010). Transit – Grant agreement n. 613169 – WP 4 | CASE STUDY Report: Shareable’s Sharing Cities 4 Bostman and Rogers define collaborative consumption as “an emerging socioeconomic ground shell” associated with ideas implying people coming together and practices such as sharing, bartering, lending or swapping. Collaborative Consumption enables people to access to products and services without actual ownership relations involved, thus creating forms of growth and prosperity previously unthinkable. Moreover, they insist on the multi-spatial dimension of Collaborative Consumption, as it comprises both local face-to-face practices and digital forms of association gathered under the same umbrella of peer-to-peer interactions. Finally, although the examples of collaborative consumption vary consistently according to different parameters,