Talk given the international Conference 
"A Great Transformation? Global Perspectives on Contemporary Capitalisms", 
January 10-13, 2017, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria

1. Sharing Economy between
Commons and Commodification
Leonhard Dobusch
University of Innsbruck
International Conference
"A Great Transformation? Global Perspectives on Contemporary Capitalisms",
January 10-13, 2017, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

2. Two Stories of the 'Sharing Economy'
Two Types of 'Sharing Economy'
A Polanyian double movement?

3. Two Stories of the 'Sharing Economy'

4. <1>
'Sharing is caring'

5. “Imagine a world in which every single
human being can freely share in
the sum of all knowledge.”

9. <2>
Sharing as a business model

13. Two Types of 'Sharing Economy'

14. <0>
Commonalities

15. Collaborative use of assets

16. Platform connects users
Platform

17. Governance by platform-based rules
Bild: http://blog.apptopia.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/better-camera-2.png

18. <1>
Commons-based 'Sharing Economy'

19. Common-pool
resource
(platform)
No directly reciprocal
exchange of benefits

20. hospitality on Couchsurfing is free. A
host should never ask a guest to pay for
their lodging, and a guest should not offer.
“

21. Open
access
Open
licenses
Open
formats

22. Bilder: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Encyclopedia_Britannica_series.JPG?uselang=de / http://coverlib.com/pub/Archiv/01910000/01909138.JPG
Revenue
Reach, scope,
quality (?)

23. <2>
Market-based Sharing Economy
(„collaborative consumption“, „pseudo-sharing“)

24. Platform
reciprocal exchange of benefits
(mediates exchanges)

27. Quelle: http://www.airbnbvsberlin.de/, CC-BY
AirBnB in Berlin:

28. Estimates of emission effects for Car2Go in Ulm:
Source: Firnkorn, J., Müller, M. (2011): What will be the environmental effects of new free-floating
car-sharing systems? The case of car2go in Ulm. Ecological Economics, 70, 1519-1528.
3.1), but as this effect is unlikely to be significant in Ulm in the period
under review until 2014, vehicles other than cars are excluded from the
analysis.
Table 4
Forecast of changing emission effects per average car2go user [kg CO2/year] (N=256).
Best case Most likely
case
Worst
case
Total emissions in 2009 (EM_total_2009) 2786 2787 2790
CO2 car2go +318 +392 +484
CO2 public transportation −16 −16 −16
CO2 borrowed car −149 −149 −149
CO2 private car −466 −466 −466
Total emissions in 2014 (EM_total_2014)a
2474 2549 2644
Net change (EM_delta_abs) −312 −238 −146
a
Calculated on exact figures without rounding.

29. Estimate of potential to reduce car ownership:
Source: Firnkorn, J., Müller, M. (2011): What will be the environmental effects of new free-floating
car-sharing systems? The case of car2go in Ulm. Ecological Economics, 70, 1519-1528.
n
d
e
size of 2.5 in the considered area corresponds to −232 kg CO2/year per
person (Martin and Shaheen, 2010). However, even though the results
.
Table 5
Potential to reduce private vehicle ownership.
Applies strongly Does not
apply at all
1 2 3 4 5
If car2go proves itself in the next 5 years in
Ulm, I could image forgoing the purchase
of a car or of a replacement car in the
future. (n=307)
14% 15% 14% 11% 46%
If car2go proves itself in the next 5 years in
Ulm, a car which I currently borrow is
likely to be dispensed with, for example
by a friend or family member. (n=294)
8% 11% 14% 12% 55%
~50%

30. A Polanyian double movement?

31. <1>
Expansion of Market Logics

32. Commodification of trust Making non-marketed
goods marketable

33. <2>
Non-market-based Production

34. Commons-based
de-commodification
Commons based on private
property and regulation

35. Two countervailing sharing economies
Resemble double movement dynamic
Double movement plays out in parallel
and in a sphere of private governance
Conclusion

36. Contacts
E-Mail:
Leonhard.Dobusch@uibk.ac.at
"
Twitter:
@leonidobusch
"
Web:
bit.ly/LD_UIBK (University of Innsbruck)
dobusch.net
"
Research blogs:
governancexborders.com
osconjunction.net