Let’s put the collaborative economy at the service of territories!

This post aims to explore the opportunities that may arise with the spread of the collaborative economy on a given territory. It is based on the work of Benjamin Tincq and Diana Filippova - Ouishare Connectors – about collaborative territories in France. As part of the research conducted in partnership with the CG92 - Hauts de Seine “département”- they wrote an essay (in French) published in Les Entretiens Albert Kahn, and they co-organized a workshop with policy makers on October 8th with Samuel Roumeau from Sharitories. Their contribution is an important input to the Sharitories program and the prospective Collaborative Territories Toolkit, especially since it is extremely well documented and conceived as a call for concrete action at local level.

Ouishare defines the collaborative economy as the wide range of practices and economic models based on horizontal structures and communities’ contribution. A collaborative territory is defined as a territory that hosts and nurtures practices, projects, spaces and tools from the collaborative economy to the benefits of an open, horizontal and abundant territory. Put simply, the central question behind this definition can be asked as follows: on which kind of territory do we want to live collectively? Ouishare created a typology to explain the contours of this notion of collaborative territory. It articulates around three components: shared territories, productive territories, and territories as commons.

A typology for collaborative territories

Shared territories envision the territory as a platform. They host the fast growing collaborative consumption, whose development has been facilitated by the multiplication of (hyper) local systems and global platforms. Systems such as ridesharing, bikesharing, coworking, local food consumption and production, or p2p home rentals have emerged quickly in the mid 2000s. While these are the most frequently implemented collaborative services on territories, they sometimes create tensions and controversies, especially in the hotel and taxi sectors. These sharing systems promote usage rather than possession of material goods, and favour horizontal organization and reduced roles of intermediaries. As these systems need a very local critical mass, the local territory is a very good entry point to supporting their development. The explosion of collaborative consumption on territories concerns several sectors. First, mobility is probably the most dynamic sector with the development of long distance ridesharing (Blablacar), instant ridesharing (Lyft), p2p car rentals (Drivy), or even shared cars and bikes (Autolib’ and Velib’ in Paris). Second, the food sector puts emphasis on local production, distribution and consumption (the most famous initiative is La Ruche Qui Dit Oui). Third, the tourism sector is also boiling with various initiatives such as p2p house rentals (AirBnb), Couchsurfing, sharing food at one’s place (Cookening), or p2p travel experiences (Vayable).

Read more: http://www.sharitories.net/lets-put-the-collaborative-economy-at-the-service-of-territories-2/

The collaborative economy is shifting some of the responsibilities the government used to have before

Arun Sundarajan is a prominent professor at New York University (NYU Stern), whose research focus on digital economy and how information technologies transform business and society. His recent research interests have focused on the growth of digital institutions influence on the political and economic development, social media and technology networks, online privacy and digital piracy. As an academic,he regularly publishes in prestigious journals such as Decision Support Systems, Information Systems Research, Journal of Economic Literature and the Journal of Management Information Systems. Sundarajan has, during his career, more than 200 international conferences. So we are in the last edition of Oui Share Fest, in which Arun Sundarajan was invited to give a lecture on his research on collaborative economy, an area which has drawn attention lately.

The activist around the common David Bollier in an interview for the newspaper el Diario.es, considers that there is a lot in common between the social movements that have emerged in the last decades, such as Occupy or 15M and the rise of the commons as the collaborative economy understands.

Do you think that it is certainly not an isolated phenomenon and that it is making changes of global reach in the society?

I think some of the people that are a part of the sharing economy could have the same motivations as the people who are part of the Occupy movement, in the way they want to solve the lack of equity there is in society. There is a certain level of discontent in people about how the wealth is distributed in the world. We’ve seen many dramatic rises of inequality. And some people feel attracted to the sharing economy because they think it maybe can have a consequence on inequality.

Read more: http://blog.cronnection.com/sharing-economy/arun-sundarajan-collaborative-economy-shifting-responsibilities-government-used/