Collaborative and sharing economy

Over the past few years the terms “sharing economy” and “collaborative economy” have entered the mainstream consciousness, mainly fuelled by greater awareness - and debate - about platforms like Uber and Airbnb and the rise of the so-called “gig economy”.

While the utopia of a new economy based upon sharing, which many envisaged only five years ago, has not emerged, we are seeing a growing number of initiatives which are making use of marketplaces and peer-to-peer matching to deliver positive social impact. At the same time, a number of ideas - such as new forms of collective action and the platform cooperative movement - are now seeking to rethink the collaborative economy and tackle some of the challenges it has thrown up. Finally, there’s been a resurgence in sharing and collaborative models which aren’t powered by new technology - such as new forms of volunteering and social action, and community and collective ownership models.

The collaborative and sharing economy (CSE) network of SIC aims to bring together different stakeholders - practitioners, policymakers, civil society, community groups, public services - to help them understand and make real new economic models, to design more efficient public services, to protect citizens and workers, and to create positive social impact.