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| Type | Conference Presentation |
| Scope | Discipline-based scholarship |
| Title | Sustainability of the digital sharing economy: platforms for transdisciplinary research |
| Organization Unit | |
| Authors |
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| Presentation Type | speech |
| Item Subtype | Original Work |
| Refereed | Yes |
| Status | Published in final form |
| Language |
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| Event Title | Swiss Inter- and Transdisciplinarity Day 2018 |
| Event Type | conference |
| Event Location | EPFL, Lausanne |
| Event Start Date | November 15 - 2018 |
| Event End Date | November 15 - 2018 |
| Abstract Text | Sharing has been a common form of access to resources in human societies. While sharing is as old as mankind, the ‘sharing economy’ is a phenomenon that advanced with digital information and communication technology (ICT), in particular the Internet, and came to the fore as a part of the digital transition. The proliferation of digital platforms and the increasing interest in participation in the sharing economy calls for a better understanding of the current trends and future course of digital sharing and its implications for sustainability. The present work introduces the intersection between “sustainability” and the “digital sharing economy” as a subject area that requires a transdisciplinary approach. The study of the digital sharing economy will inevitably require scholars and experts from manifold disciplines; this can encourage collaboration and knowledge co-producttion in achieving common understandings, joint approaches, and compatible solutions to tackle complex societal issues. In cases, society has been unable to perceive the changes brought by digital transition alongside its pace. This has led to limitations and deficiencies in projecting future trends and implications of digitalization for societies. Based on the ontological assumption of this work, all human interactions are in fact social practices; these practices shape shape society and in particular economic structures. This ontology has been also used in former studies on the impacts of the ICT applications on society and the environment in the normative context of sustainability, e.g. in the work of Hilty and Aebischer (2015). The conceptual framework proposed by Hilty and Aebischer, which we use as the analytical tool for our transdisciplinary approach, structures and analyzes the life-cycle effects, enabling effects, and structural effects (LES model) of digitalization. Therefore, our findings are drawn from the adoption of the LES model to address the interdisciplinary implications of the digital sharing economy, as one existing “use-case” of ICT, for the sustainability of the environment and societies. We found that the enabling effects of digital sharing for the various actors in production and consumption processes and the effects of sharing on sustainability requires investigation. The expected long-term structural changes resulting from these enabling impacts should be also considered with regard to their relevance for sustainability. From a structural change perspective, the digital sharing economy has promoted individual economic empowerment, but it has also raised some social and environmental concerns. In particular, it has been criticized for labour exploitation and its tendencies to create unequal access in communities, to create unregulated marketplaces and to promote unfair competition. Therefore, prominent considerations here would be towards creating and improving equal opportunities for fair distribution/competition for everyone in sharing markets. Institutions and related policies can speed up the digital transition towards sustainable development. For policy making with regard to digital sharing practices, it will be essential to define paradigms that support sustainable, collaborative production and consumption with respect to planetary boundaries. |
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