You can register for the workshop here.

The workshop will explore the following questions:

1. CONCEPTS

a) Which theories and analytical frameworks can be used to understand the emergence, advancement, sustainability or growth of the sharing economy?

b) What is the relationship between the sharing economy, sustainability, circular economy and sustainability transitions?

c) What is the role of regulatory, normative and cognitive institutions in shaping the sharing economy?

d) Does the sharing economy pave the way for new forms of economic order and redefined prosperity? Or, is the sharing economy just a vehicle for corporate interests?

2. METHODS

a) What kinds of methods can be employed or need to be developed in order to understand the sharing economy and measure its impacts?

b) How could methodological approaches from different disciplines be integrated in order to advance the study of the sharing economy?

c) What typologies of sharing organisations and business models exist and what are their strengths and weaknesses? Which typologies still need to be developed and why?

3. IMPACTS

a) What are the economic, social and environmental impacts of the sharing economy?

b) How are the potential tensions between social, environmental and economic value creation managed?

c) How does the sharing economy redefine work-life balance and the boundaries between professional and private spheres?

d) In what way does the sharing economy influence the modes and provision of welfare in societies?

4. OPERATIONS

a) What business models have been devised in the sharing economy and why do some succeed and others do not?

b) Why are sharing organisations and business models more popular in some sectors rather than in others?

c) What constrains and enables the growth and diffusion of sharing organisations?

d) What is the impact of sharing platforms on incumbent industries and companies? How do incumbents respond to sharing organisations?

e) Is the sharing economy dependent on new types of innovation, e.g. open innovation, grassroots innovation, institutional entrepreneurship, or does it rely on traditional innovation processes and actors?

5. GEOGRAPHICAL CONTEXTS

a) Why are sharing organisations and business models more popular in some cities and geographical contexts rather than in others?

b) What are the promises of the sharing economy for cities and/or rural areas?

c) What are the institutional responses to sharing organisations in different cities?

d) Which lessons on sharing economy can cities and regions in various parts of the world learn from each other?

e) What is the potential and specificity of sharing economy in the cities with more traditional cultures of sharing (e.g. Eastern Europe, Global South)?

6. ACTORS

a) What drives different actors to enter and operate in the sharing economy? What conflicts arise around different understandings and operations of sharing?

b) What are the characteristics of consumers/participants in the sharing economy?

c) Why do certain groups of actors engage in the sharing economy while others do not?

d) In what way does the consumers’ role change in the sharing economy compared to the traditional marketplaces?

7. GOVERNANCE

a) What is the role of policy and regulation in relation to the sharing economy: a barrier or an enabler?

b) What policy interventions and at which levels are needed to enable different forms of sharing economy?

c) What policy interventions or novel governance arrangements are needed to ensure the sustainability of the sharing economy, i.e. environmental, social and economic?