Share Vienna
= a research project within the framework of sustainable consumption and production. The project focuses on collaborative consumption
URL = http://www.rce-vienna.at/activities/share-vienna2/
Description
"SHARE VIENNA is a research project within the framework of sustainable consumption and production. The project focuses on collaborative consumption, i.e. an approach to consumption that emerged from the shifts brought by globalization and technological developments, which places access over ownership and brings us “back” to bartering, trading, swapping and sharing in a modern re-defined form.
collaborative consumption1Collaborative consumption, named by TIME one of the “10 Ideas That Will Change the World” shows how new technologies enable building trust between strangers, reinventing not just WHAT we consume but HOW we consume. Importantly, it is not anti-business, anti-product or anti-consumer – it is simply a new approach to consumption based on sustainable behavior." (http://www.rce-vienna.at/activities/share-vienna2/)
Interview
Anna Bergren Miller: Tell me about Share Vienna. What is it? What is your role in the project?
Katarzyna Gruszka: First, Share Vienna is a research project about the collaborative economy. That's important because it is not an organization; we don't hold events or anything like that. It's purely from the academic side. I am a project assistant at the Vienna University of Economics and Business [Wirtschafts Universität Wien], in a group called RCE Vienna [Regional Centre of Expertise on Education for Sustainable Development Vienna], and I am also doing my PhD.
The framing of Share Vienna comes from my PhD area. I am, broadly speaking, looking at sociological transformations, and at changes in behavior. I was always interested in the topic of—first it was collaborative consumption, but now I prefer to use "collaborative economy" to make it more inclusive.
In Vienna, there is special funding from the city itself for for one-year research projects. Share Vienna is sponsored by this funding. When I was writing [the research proposal], one of the focal topics [of the call for proposals] was the "smart city." Not only its technological aspects, but also social innovations.
Share Vienna was initiated by me, and [I secured] the funding, but I'm not officially the project head. The project head is the head of the group that I am working for, even though I am the only person at the university working on this.
We have a partner, Umweltdachverband, which is basically an umbrella of different NGOs. They do a lot of projects in the area of education. Our organizations were cooperating before, and I suggested that we could include Umweltdachverband as a partner.
Share Vienna is designed around two big tasks. One of the tasks is more research-focused. I am responsible for this. And then we have the second part, which will be organized by our partner. This will be in the form of two to three workshops with people who I first involve in the research part." (http://www.shareable.net/blog/share-vienna-growing-the-collaborative-economy-in-austrias-capital)