Sharing Cities and Commoning: An Alternative Narrative for Just and Sustainable Cities

Abstract

Sharing Cities are emerging as an alternative narrative which promotes sharing as a transformative phenomenon for just and sustainable cities. This article shows that Sharing Cities are conceived within the alternative political economy of the commons. Bringing a theoretical contribution into dialogue with a practice-oriented book, this paper aims at checking the concept of Sharing Cities against the reality on the ground by reviewing 137 secondary cases: (1) Is communal (non-commercial) sharing a substantial phenomenon? (2) What is the role of technology—and more widely, of intermediation—in sharing practices? (3) If at all, what is being transformed by sharing practices? (4) Are commons depicted in each case? Results show that most cases display a communal form of sharing that is independent of digital platforms, i.e., that the sharing transformation affects all arenas of production and social reproduction across a wide variety of sectors, and it relies on translocal replication rather than up-scaling. With only 26% of cases apparently depicting a commons, this paper argues for a relational epistemology of urban commoning, shifting the focus to more-than-human commoning-communities. Thus, Sharing Cities are captured not only as a set of policy proposals and practices but as the performative depiction of an alternative worldview based on interdependence, ready for the Anthropocene.

Legal Perspectives on Smart City Data as a Commons

“…This problem is not limited purely to the theoretical literature sphere, as demonstrated by Labaeye (2019) when reviewing 137 sharing case studies to examine which incorporate Ostrom's commons. 33 Out of the examined case studies, in 26 % (35 out of 137) an (Ostrom's) commons could be identified, where key principles such as collective management was present. 34 Consequently, even in reality if something is a shared resource, and therefore a commons in the ordinary sense, it does not necessarily translate to a commons in the Ostrom sense.…”

StadtTeilen

“…1) gesehen, in dem langfristige soziale Strukturen geschaffen werden, innerhalb derer »wir kooperieren und Nützliches schaffen können« (Helfrich & Bollier, 2019, S. 19). Dabei wird Sharing als normatives Konzept verstanden, mit Hilfe dessen eine gerechtere, nachhaltigere und inklusivere Form der Verteilung von Ressourcen möglich ist, die unabhängig von Staat und Markt existiert Labaeye, 2019) und bei deren Umsetzung Aktivist*innen, Initiativen und/oder NGOs eine wichtige Rolle spielen (Shareable, 2018).…”

Fronteiras conceituais dos termos cidades sustentáveis, cidades inteligentes e bioeconomia: O que as pesquisas científicas, encontradas na literatura, tem a dizer?

“…Duran e Perez (2015), igualmente como Leite (2012), Weiss (idem), além de Botton et al (2021) compreendem que, a implementação do modelo de Cidades Sustentáveis e Inteligentes, aliada ao paradigma do Desenvolvimento Sustentável, está em constante crescimento em todo o mundo. Para tanto, faz -se necessário haver aperfeiçoamento das políticas públicas voltadas ao investimento na infraestrutura, no aperfeiçoamento do capital humano, proporcionando, assim, para os habitantes locais uma melhor qualidade de vida e para os visitantes e turistas, um melhor local de prazer e de contemplação (LABAEYE, 2019;DUIVENVOORDEN, 2021).…”