Sharing Our Way Into the Future

Summary

This brief, conclusive essay outlines the challenges that lie ahead of sociology as a discipline in its approach towards the ‘sharing economy’ and its emergent practices. Using the research displayed in the monograph, we offer a set of reflections that should read as a call to arms for sociological research to embrace the ‘sharing turn’ in a comprehensive manner.

The collection of essays included in this Sociological Review monograph shows the many geographical, economic and social implications arising from the phenomena we have come to know and classify as part of an emerging ‘sharing economy’, as well as the many perspectives from which these can be read. We maintain that this collection provides evidence of how sociology offers a privileged point of observation for the study of sharing practices and its societal implications. The array of tools and resources that sociology has at its disposal remains key to ensuring that we grasp the complexity of an evolution in society that privileges access to ownership, relies heavily on the rise of digital technologies as new kinds of market intermediaries and calls into question current understandings of cooperation, collaboration and distribution.