Why promoting the collaborative economy

What is the difference between Fab labs, Arduino, Blablacar and shared gardens?

What are the common points between the movement on basic income, complementary currencies and AirBnb?

All these examples are somehow related to the collaborative economy and they show that the collaborative economy gathers a wide range of actors with different purposes, political impact and different modes or organizations. If the objective is to push forward the collaborative economy as a social and political model that can answer many deficiencies of the current social model, it would be important to distinguish how all these initiatives can help solve current issues.

Which initiatives should be pushed forward? Who would benefit from these initiatives and how?

Criteria to distinguish the different projects
Here is a list of criteria to distinguish the nature of the different projects from the collaborative economy:


 * Trust enabler
 * Type of organization (cooperative, association, informal network, for profit company, listed company, etc.)
 * Licence under which goods and contents are put (use of free licences, etc.)
 * Degree of openness (can anybody join the movement, benefit from the service? If not, what are the conditions to benefit from it?, etc.)
 * Creation of common goods or services (fostering the Commons; are the creations put under a free and open-source license?, etc.)
 * Means of exchange (standard monetary system, alternative currency, gift, redistribution, etc.)
 * Mode of governance
 * Transparence of decision-making processes
 * Accessibility of the services offered
 * Generation of a complementary revenue
 * Knowledge sharing enabler

According to how each project relates to the criteria above, its social benefits could be different.

The benefits
How do the different projects from the collaborative economy can help solve current issues?

Less individualism: most of the time, when we use collaborative services, we encounter new people, with other points of view. The collaborative economy fosters the creation of links between people, that would have never met without collaborative services. It seems it is a powerful trust builder...

Toward less stressful forms of work: many collaborative initiatives are built around decentralized organizations based on initiatives, flexibility and freedom. Is it the laboratory of the new forms of work of the 21st century?

Facing unemployment: even if the collaborative economy could destroy some jobs, it can be a transition toward something better, and could enable a post-employment society.

In a different perspective, the collaborative economy could foster the creation of more informal jobs, complementary sources of revenue (ex: earning money for riding other people). So, in this case, is the collaborative economy a reinforcement of the liberal model? Is it an improvement in the way of life? Is it the transition toward a more anarchic model?

Sustainable development: privileging the access over property will help preserve the natural resources. It is therefore a different way to allocate resources...

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