I wanted to write a more upbeat post this time, after my seemingly doom and gloom rant on the problems we face with our economic and social systems, in regards to sustainably managing our environment. The problem as I see it is that our systems are broken, however there is no need to despair, despair does little but impede action, and action is what we need. We can all contribute to fixing the problems we face, in many different ways, and this post will explore one of these which is close to my heart – the sharing economy.
I have been down quite a strange path of discovery to reach what is known as the sharing economy, a place I feel represents, to me, a good alternative system of organising ourselves. I wrote a post earlier this year on mass collaboration, seemingly on the sharing of ideas or distributed innovation, which in hindsight was the beginning of my understanding of the sharing economy. As it is a part of the sharing economy, however not the whole – all in all the post is a work in progress. If you would like to read it and contribute to it that would be most appreciated. After all not one person has the answer to these wicked problems we are facing.
Now this semester, completing this course ,the ideas of tragedy of the commons surfaced ,which again, had me looking over what communities ( however you wish to define the word ) of people can do to prevent these tragedies from happening. Ironically though this process I “discovered’ the sharing economy – its times like these that information sharing makes me so glad (umm, thanks sharing economy!) . This movement spans a vast variety of fields and possibilities from collaborative consumption through recycling of goods between people, for example swapping unneeded goods with another person, and collaborative lifestyles where things such as time, ideas, and money are shared, think timebanking, crowdfunding and crowdsourcing. Lastly there is the service component which consists of loaning out an asset that one owns such as a car, bike, room or lawnmower, think Uber and Airbnb. The internet plays a major role, if not the main role in connecting people and enabling them to participate in the sharing economy.
According to Hardin’s commons theory, which is widely cited as the prominent source on the reason for human caused environmental degradation, many aspects of this movement shouldn’t work as people are self-interested and will inevitability destroy the commons unless it is privatised. Strangely enough though the sharing economy is growing in momentum with more and more money and time invested each year from individuals and communities, through crowd sourcing and timebanking to venture capitalists. It promotes the reduction of the use of resources through sharing products and promotes reusing and recycling products through swapping with others. It also promotes a sense of community and democracy – a need to care about one and another, and it promotes and develops intrinsic values. These aspects fit well with evidence from the social sciences which conclude that intrinsic values are needed to help solve bigger- than-self problems such as climate change and biodiversity loss . It doesn’t seem to me that this sharing movement is in any way inherently doomed to lead to a tragedy of the commons . Elinor Ostrom explored this in her research of shared commons in which she concluded that shared commons are not inevitability doomed to the tragic circumstances Hardin claims.
The whole sharing economy concept (as anything) is not perfect, take for instance the controversy related to Airbnb and Uber. Strangely though, I have an inkling that many of (not all) these problems are not related to the sharing concept but the money pumped into these companies by venture capitalists that do not care about the people or community, and are just in it for fast profits at the expense of others. Perhaps its capitalism that is corrupting this concept? It leads me to ponder whether Hardin’s concept of humanity with inherent self-interest at its core was an inaccurate capitalist projection based on economic assumptions that have been proven to be incorrect. Note, I am not saying humans can’t be self-interested, just that this is not our default setting. I think the following story best describes the situation we are facing.
My son, the battle is between two ‘wolves’ inside us all. One is Evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.
The other is good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith.
The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather: Which wolf wins?
The old Cherokee simply replied, The one you feed.
The question is which one are we going to feed, and which system feeds which one?
I could be wrong about my conclusions but they make sense to me, either way I think the sharing economy is a great idea that promotes many values and actions that we need to ensure we live sustainably. What are your thoughts on the sharing economy? If you would like to investigate the sharing economy I have found the shareable and collaborative consumption websites useful.
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