Category:Sharing: Difference between revisions

Introduction

Sharing is a concept with competing meanings (it is simply defined by Wikipedia: Sharing as just "the joint use of a resource or space"). But at the P2P Foundation, we sharply distinguish what we consider real sharing (which may involve the joint construction and management of Commons), from simply exchanging goods and services over privately owned platform. The Sharing Economy is therefore a concept which confuses sharply different practices.

To get a better sense of the different meanings of sharing, we recommend:

• getting a sense of the relational grammar developed by Alan Page Fiske, see: Relational Model Typology - Fiske, which distinguishes the gift economy, commoning, authority ranking and market pricing, as four ways to distribute resources in a society.

• Michel Bauwens explains the four basic categories of the emerging 'sharing economy', on Youtube [1]; for supporting text and graph, see: Four Future P2P Scenarios. We distinguish four formats for the so-called Sharing Economy, i.e.: Netarchical Capitalism, Distributed Capitalism,

Resilient Communities and Global Commons

• Our proposed alternatives to the mainstream sharing economy based on private platforms is Platform Cooperativism and Open Cooperatives

Key Quote

While Kevin Carson here is referring primarily to goods, this can also be applied to information resources.

"Sharing is a way of maximizing the utilization of idle productive goods owned by individuals. Just about any tool or appliance you need for a current project, but lack, is probably gathering dust on the shelf of someone within a few blocks of where you live. If the pooling of such idle resources doesn’t seem like much of a deal for the person with the unused appliances, keep in mind first that he isn’t getting anything at all out of them now, second that he may trade access to them for access to other people’s tools that he needs, and third that the arrangement may increase the variety of goods and services he has to choose from outside the wage system." - [2]

Key Concepts of This Category

• For examples of sharing major material resources, see: Carsharing, Bikesharing and Cohousing.

Useful learning resources

Introductory

• Sharing ; Sharing Economy

Deeper Study

• Introduction to the P2P Foundation Wiki Material about Sharing compiled by Michel Bauwens (ex category page)

Related Categories

• Commons

• [3]

• Community

• Cooperation

• Cooperatives ; Platform Cooperatives

• Participation