Who is out?

EVOLUTION OF CONCEPTUALIZATION OF SHARING ECONOMY Date

2002

2005

Who is in? Who is out?

Legitimation/opposition/ contestation

Yochai Benkler

Introduction of the concept “commonsbased peer production”. Definition: it is a socio-economic system of production that is emerging in the digitally networked environment. Facilitated by the technical Crowd-based infrastructure of the Internet, the hallmark of collaboration, this socio-technical system is collaboration altruism, among large groups of individuals, stewardship, sometimes in the order of tens or even non-profit hundreds of thousands, who cooperate exchange effectively to provide information, knowledge or cultural goods without relying on either market pricing or managerial hierarchies to coordinate their common enterprise”

Who is in: Large groups of individuals, who cooperate effectively to provide information, knowledge or cultural goods without relying on either market pricing or managerial hierarchies to coordinate their common enterprise. Who is out: Any other traditional business models with more rigid hierarchical structures.

Nature of the legitimation: Early days of Cognitive Legitimation

Michel Bauwens

Publication of an essay “The Political Economy of Peer Production”. Introduction of concept “peer to peer (P2P)”. Definition: “As political, economic, and social systems transform themselves into distributed Crowd-based networks, a new human dynamic is collaboration, emerging: P2P”. This new dynamic is giving altruism, rise to a third mode of production, a third stewardship, mode of governance, and a third mode of non-profit property” and, ultimately, “it is poised to exchange overhaul our political economy in unprecedented ways”. Peer-to-peer projects are processes happening over distributed networks and these are places where individuals have a certain degree of agency.

Who is in: Large groups of individuals (networks), who share a distributed power and access to resources; Anyone can participate in these networks, where knowledge is distributed among all users. Who is out: Any other traditional forms of much rigid and hierarchical models of distributing and sharing information.


Actor

Events

Nature of the Definition

2007

2015

Lawrence Lessig

Oxford Dictionary

Introduction of the term Sharing Economy. Definition: “The Internet exploded a sharing Crowd-based economy with things like Wikipedia where collaboration, people are doing work that creates a lot of altruism, value, not for money but just because it’s stewardship, their hobby. We’ve seen a pattern of hybrid non-profit companies like this trying to figure out ways exchange to leverage that for a profit”

Who is in: A whole community of people (civil society) who are trying to “create a lot of value, not for money but just because it’s their hobby”. At the same time, other agents like hybrid companies recognize the breakthrough value of those activities and, as such, try to figure out ways to turn them into profit. Who is out: Traditional companies that are just making money selling widgets or iTunes.


The terms “Sharing Economy” (SE) and “RideShare” (RS) are added to Oxford Dictionary. Definition of SE: “An economic system in which assets or services are shared between private individuals, either for free or for a fee, typically by means of the Internet.”; Definition of RS: “To participate in an arrangement in which a passenger travels in a private vehicle driven by its owner, for free or for a fee, especially as arranged by means of a website or app.”

Who is in: Private individuals. Who is out: Any other identity that isn’t a private individual.

Nature of the legitimation: Reinforcement of Cognitive Legitimation, as well as, Credibility

Technological (Web); Altruism, Stewardship; Profit and Non-profit exchange

2015

2015

Eric Swawell and Darrell Issa

Launch of The Congressional Sharing Economy Caucus. The two congressmen explain: “Americans increasingly rely on the sorts of innovative services the internet has made possible – services that bring Americans together while providing a new measure of convenience by providing opportunities to conduct business in more efficient ways. The Sharing Economy Caucus will focus on these pioneering industries and ensure Congress is taking all of the necessary steps to facilitate, rather than hinder, the next great idea.”

FCT (Federal Trade Commission)

Public Workshop to Examine Competition, Consumer Protection and Economic Issues Raised by the Sharing Economy. FCT explains: “Peer-to-peer platforms, which enable suppliers and consumers to connect and do business, have led to the emergence of new business models in industries that have been subject to regulation. The FTC’s sharing economy workshop will explore how regulatory frameworks can accommodate new sharing economy business models while maintaining appropriate consumer protections and a competitive marketplace.”

Opportunism; Profit; Agency

Who is in: A whole range of pioneering industries who bring a shift away from an institutional provision of stuff and towards peer-to-peer, mediated by a platform. These industries bring a better and sometimes more efficient access, deployment, and use of capital, of labor and of assets.” Who is out: Traditional industries outside this scope.

Nature of the legitimation: Consolidation of Cognitive Legitimation and Credibility

Normative; Regulatory

Who is in: Online and mobile peer-to peer business platforms. Who is out: Platforms that link buyers with a single seller of a product or service.


2015

2016

Publication of a Report on assessing the SE. Definition: it an “emergent ecosystem that is upending mature business models across the globe”. It allows individuals and groups to make money from underused assets. In this way, physical assets are shared as services. For example, a car owner may allow someone to rent out her vehicle while she is not using it, or a condo owner may rent out PwC his condo while he’s on vacation. It also (PricewaterhouseCoopers) concludes that no single label can neatly encapsulate the movement, as for some the word “sharing” was a misnomer, a savvy-butdisingenuous spin on an industry they felt was more about monetary opportunism than altruism, while for others, more appropriate titles included the Trust Economy, Collaborative Consumption, the On-Demand or Peer-to-Peer Economy.

ESA Economics and Statistics Administration of the U.S. Commerce Department

Publication of a Report attempting to define and map out the contours of the SE. Definition: its participants are digital matching firms.

Opportunism; Profit; Agency (in rationalizing underused assets)

Who is in: Consumers in general (“Individuals and Groups) Who is out: Traditional industries outside this scope.


Technological (Web)

Who is in: Any digital firm who: (a) use information technology (IT systems), typically available via web-based platforms, such as mobile “apps” on Internet-enabled devices, to facilitate peer-topeer transactions; (b) rely on user-based rating systems for quality control, ensuring a level of trust between consumers and service providers who have not previously met; (c) offer the workers who provide services via digital matching platforms flexibility in deciding their typical working hours; (d) to the extent that tools and assets are necessary to provide a service, rely on the workers using their own. Who is out: Traditional industries outside this scope.


2016

2016

2016

Arun Sundararajan

Publication of Book “The Sharing Economy: the end of employment and the rise of crowd-based capitalism”. Definition: Preferring to label it as “crowd-based capitalism”, the author defines broadly approaches the SE as a transaction “in which you are not helping a friend for free but rather providing SE services to a stranger for money”.

Brad Stone

Publication of the Book “The Upstarts: How Uber, Airbnb, and the Killer Companies of the New Silicon Valley Are Changing the World.”

European Commission

Publication of a Report “Scoping the Sharing Economy: Origins, Definitions, Impact and Regulatory Issues”. Definition: the report concludes that there still are “ambiguous answers to some of the fundamental questions about the ‘sharing economy’. The available research is too limited and patchy to give us a comprehensive and coherent picture”. It suggests that “a definition of sharing platforms should focus on P2P activities because this would reflect the group of platforms where most of the policy concerns are situated. These include regulatory and consumer protection issues in the informal production of services, potentially unfair competition with formal B2C service providers, and questions related to dominance and market power of the P2P platform operator as a commercial business.”

Who is in: Crowd-based “networks” (decentralized crowds of individuals; and crowd-based marketplaces) Who is out: Centralized institutions or “hierarchies” (corporate or state aggregates; and centralized third parties)


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Normative; Regulatory

Who is in: P2P activities Who is out: Formal B2C service providers

Nature of the legitimation: Consolidation of Cognitive Legitimation and Credibility; Steps towards Socio-political Legitimation

Technological (Web); Opportunism; Profit

SOME OF THE MOST RELEVANT DIFFERENT CONCEPTIONS OF SHARING ECONOMY Date

1924

1983

Actor

Marcel Mauss

Lewis Hyde

Events

Nature of the Definition

Publication of an essay “Essau sur le don”, where the author characterizes what he calls “gift economies” (GEs). Definition: “GEs have Crowd-based three obligations: to give, to accept, and to collaboration, reciprocate*”. altruism, stewardship, *(Re-brought to light by Arun Sundararajan in non-profit his book “The Sharing Economy: the end of exchange employment and the rise of crowd-based capitalism”)

Publication of Book “The Gift: Creativity and the Artist in the Modern World”. Definition: the author puts emphasis to the “creation of community” in opposition of creation of monetary value (“purpose versus profit Crowd-based discussion”). The nature of a gift is that its collaboration, property value or consumption value is altruism, largely irrelevant. Rather, the true value of stewardship, any exchange or transfer of objects is of non-profit increasing social cohesion*”. exchange *(Re-brought to light by Arun Sundararajan in his book “The Sharing Economy: the end of employment and the rise of crowd-based capitalism”)

Who is in? Who is out?

Legitimation/opposition/ contestation

Who is in: P2P activities: (Individuals and Groups) Who is out: Any other form of activity where there is monetary exchange.

Nature of the legitimation: Cognitive Legitimation and Credibility

Who is in: P2P activities (Individuals and Groups) Who is out: Any other form of activity where there is monetary exchange.


2010

2013

Rachel Botsman and Roo Rogers

Jeremiah Owyang

Publication of Book “What’s mine is yours: The rise of the Collaborative Consumption”. Introduction of the term “collaborative consumption”. Definition: contrarily to “hyper consumption” in the 20th century, Hybrid: where access is defined by credit, access in Crowd-based collaborative consumption in the 21st century collaboration, is driven by reputation; Choice in hyper Altruism, consumption is defined advertising, whereas Stewardship; choice in collaborative consumption is driven Profit and by community; Hyper consumption is Non-profit defined by ownership, collaborative exchange consumption by shared access. “Simply put, people are sharing again with their community – be it an office, a neighborhood, an apartment, a school, or facebook network”.

Introduction of the concept “Collaborative Economy” (CE). Definition: “An economic model where commonly available technologies enable people to get what they need from each other.” The CE is a wide enough scope of the overall trend: P2P transactions. An example of these peer based transactions includes: crowdfunding where people fund each other’s projects, the maker movement where people make their own goods instead of buying them from traditional retail, P2P lending where people lend each other money instead of from traditional lenders, crypto currencies where the crowd owns the ledgers, and the sharing economy a term popularized by the media where people rent homes, cars or services to each other.

Technological (Web); Crowd-based exchanges

Who is in: P2P collaborative consumptions (Individuals and Groups) Who is out: Any other activity outside this scope.


Who is in: P2P transactions Who is out: Any other transaction outside this scope.


2015

Lisa Gansky

Publication of Book “The Mesh”. Introduction of the term “Mesh”. Definition: “a type of network that allows any node to link in any direction with any other node in the system”. In other words, the Mesh has 5 central features: 1 – it is defined by shareability. In other words, products or services can be easily shared within a community and that community can take any form (local or global); 2 – it relies on advanced digital networks (data, about what is being shared, and by whom, can be tracked in real time); 3 – it is about immediacy (goods can be shared whenever and wherever); 4 – in the Mesh, advertising is replaced with promotions driven by social media platforms (user reviews that appear on the platforms in question or other sites, such as Facebook and Twitter); 5 – the Mesh Economy is global in scale and potential. Gansky gives emphasis to the fact that the Mesh might be the “next big opportunity for creating new businesses and for renewing old ones.”

Technological (Web); Crowd-based exchanges; Opportunism; Profit

Who is in: A whole range of Communities (being local or global) who share products or services by a mediating advanced digital network Who is out: Any other activity outside this scope.


ADOPTION OF OTHER TERMS OVER TIME (Which, in one way or another, all fall in the categories described above. Only the term differs.)

Blue Economy Caring Economy Circular Economy Collaboration Economy Consumer to Consumer Connection Economy Cooperative Economy Crowd Economy Freelance Economy Frugal Economy Gift Economy Gig Economy Green Economy Human Economy Local On Demand Economy Maker Movement Micro Entrepreneur Economy Micro transaction Economy New Economy On Demand Economy P2P Economy Peer Economy Purpose Economy Rental Economy Serf Economy Servitude Economy Shadow Economy Shared Economy Sharing Economy Solidarity Economy Subscription Economy Trust Economy Zero Waste Economy 1099 Economy