Urban Sharing: Sustainability and Institutionalisation Pathways

Project Information

Urban Sharing

Grant agreement ID: 771872

DOI

10.3030/771872

Project closed

EC signature date 10 April 2018

Start date 1 September 2018

End date 31 August 2023

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC)

Total cost

€ 1 999 948,00

EU contribution

€ 1 999 948,00

Coordinated by

LUNDS UNIVERSITET
Sweden

Periodic Reporting for period 4 - Urban Sharing (Urban Sharing: Sustainability and Institutionalisation Pathways)

Reporting period: 2023-03-01 to 2023-08-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Research Problem and importance for society:
Urban sharing (manifested in the sharing economy) has recently resurfaced as a potential solution to cities' multiple societal challenges. It is an umbrella term for various organisational models that are transforming marketplaces and cityscapes, where goods and services are shared and exchanged. Urban sharing promises to reduce environmental impacts by putting under-utilised assets to work, generate economic revenue from urban assets, and improve social cohesion by connecting individuals via ubiquitous digital technology. Some commentators warned that there was little evidence to support sustainability claims of urban sharing. They maintained that awaited environmental effects failed to materialise, that economic benefits were not equally distributed and that there were concerns about public safety, privacy and health. However, urban sharing organisations (USOs) do not operate in a vacuum – their design, operations and sustainability impacts are affected by cities and the broader institutional contexts. Different institutions and urban actors influence sharing in various ways in different cities. Yet, the literature provides few insights into how USOs operate and become institutionalised in diverse urban contexts and what role cities play in shaping the landscape of urban sharing and sustainability impacts of USOs. Urban sharing is a growing global phenomenon with the potential to dramatically impact the current economic paradigm and enhance sustainability in cities. However, with competing motivations among actors who promote urban sharing, the lack of evidence to support the sustainability promises and the limited theoretical understanding of their institutionalisation pathways in different urban contexts, there was an urgent need for a comprehensive analysis of urban sharing organisations.

Thus, this research project aimed to examine, test and advance knowledge about design, sustainability of practices and institutionalisation pathways of urban sharing organisations across cities. Three inter-related objectives for the research were:
1. DESIGN: To examine how USOs are designed and operate and how they vary in diverse city contexts.
2. PRACTICES: To study the sustainability impacts of USOs and how they vary across cities.
3. PATHWAYS: To advance theoretical understanding of institutionalisation pathways of USOs in cities.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The UrbanSharing project has gathered unique international empirical evidence about the design and operations of USOs across five cities. The team conducted over 250 interviews, collected rich data through observations and mobile research labs and organised 9 workshops with academics and practitioners in the cities.

The Urban Sharing team co-organised the 8th International Workshop on the Sharing Economy in Vienna that took place on 22-23 May 2023 (in collaboration with the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, and Vienna University of Economics and Business). This was the final conference for the project, and the Urban Sharing team was featured in many sessions. Based on the outcomes of the 8th International Workshop on the Sharing Economy, a call for a special issue, “Reimaging Sharing Economy” of the Journal of Cleaner Production.

Overall, the Urban Sharing team co-organised and contributed to three edited volumes on the sharing economy. The first edited volume was a Special Issue of the Journal of Cleaner Production, “A decade of the sharing economy”. The second is the ongoing call for a special issue of the Journal of Cleaner Production, “Reimaging Sharing Economy”. The third edited volume is an upcoming book by Edward Elgar called “Understanding the Urban Sharing Economy: Sustainability and Institutionalisation” to be published in 2024.

The Urban Sharing project produced 106 academic publications, stakeholder reports, city snapshots, videos and media articles. In particular, we published 17 articles, 8 book chapters, 3 PhD dissertations, more than 40 conference papers, and presentations. The frameworks and insights developed through the project are now being used to shape more sustainable and equitable sharing economy policies. For example, the City of Kalmar, Sweden, has used the municipal governance framework of the sharing economy to develop the Handbook for the Sharing Economy for municipalities in Sweden. The series of six films that discuss the five municipal governance mechanisms of the sharing economy constitute the core of the Massive Open Online Course on Sharing Cities (https://www.coursera.org/learn/sharing-cities) with over 7700 global learners as of September 2023.

The project had a website till October 30, 2023: urbansharing.org featuring a vibrant blog, publications and news feed.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

Our activities and publications collectively contribute to understanding urban sharing organisations, their practices, and their potential to shape sustainable and resilient cities.

The project team has developed toolkits for assessing sharing business models and the sustainability of sharing organisations that are now being used in new research on sharing and sustainable business models. We developed and tested a hybrid input-output Life Cycle Assessment model and an approach to assess the rebound effects from changes in consumption patterns based on income elasticities. Both methods can provide a better understanding of the impacts of sharing by capturing direct and indirect impacts in other economic sectors and the rebound effects of consumption.

UrbanSharing team now contributes to the large EU Horizon Europe project CULTIVATE on food sharing (https://cultivate-project.eu) where both the Mobile Research Lab method developed in the Urban Sharing project will be used, as well as the sustainability assessment toolkit will contribute to developing an apparatus for assessing costs and benefits of food sharing initiatives.

The work by the Urban Sharing team on understanding the institutionalisation pathways of USOs in diverse cities brought together disparate sciences: organisational, institutional and sustainability. Our work of discerning mechanisms of municipal governance of the sharing economy and institutional work by sharing organisations contributed to academia and practice. Several municipalities adopted our novel framework for municipal governance of the sharing economy as a navigation and communication tool.

Our work opened up new directions for future research, specifically the new direction of share & repair where the ideas of the sharing economy are combined with the aspirations of the circular economy. The work on sharing business models has benefited several streams of management literature, e.g. business model patterns and morphological assessments. Our work on sustainability assessments has brought attention to the importance of considering rebound effects in the sharing economy, which are now explored in the frame of the 1.5° Sustainable Lifestyle project.

Urban sharing team meeting with representatives of Amsterdam City

bike-sharing-seoul.jpg

Screenshot of Snapshot and report from Mobile Research Lab in Amsterdam

Screenshot of Snapshot from Mobile Research Lab in Toronto

Urban sharing team in Amsterdam