Sharing You Can Believe In

Summary

The Awkward Potential within Sharing Economy Encounters.

For too long now I’ve been researching and advocating on behalf of systems of shared use. This year, the ‘sharing economy’ has shown itself to be overwhelmingly an anti-regulatory, precariat-creating way of monetizing social interactions. The term has been so exploited by some of the most vile, greedy technolibertarians around that it is time for me to write off more than a decade’s work. (When I do, I will refer to it as my ‘failed research focus startup’ so that it actually bolsters my credentials.)

In particular, I want to try to defend the term ‘sharing,’ or argue for why it should be reserved for certain kinds of systems, ones that could actually change how our societies work from the current ‘business-as-usual.’