A Research Network for the Sharing Economy: Q&A With Dr. Gabriela Avram of the Sharing and Caring Cost Action

Summary

The original meaning of the term “sharing economy” is evidenced by the truly collaborative, democratic and equitable projects covered regularly at Shareable. Recently, however, many investor-owned, profit-first tech startups and “unicorns” have co-opted the language and used it to whitewash projects more accurately understood as platform capitalism.

In a world where this term has developed contradictory meanings and brings up strong emotions whenever it is evoked, it is useful to have a stock of objective research which takes into consideration the full spectrum of sharing economy — collaborative economy — projects.

The Sharing and Caring COST Action seeks to provide this type of research backbone for the sharing economy by increasing the understanding of how different types of sharing projects are started and how they impact society. COST Actions are European Commission programs which fund networking between academics and researchers over the course of four years on a specific topic, allowing interdisciplinary networking and collaborative research to take place across borders in the fields of science and technology.