Putting the sharing economy into perspective

Chapter 8, ‘Putting the sharing economy into perspective’ by Koen Frenken and Juliet Schor introduces and examines the vibrant and contested field of practice and academic research - the sharing economy. The chapter starts by providing a thorough overview of the knowledge base related to the sharing economy, which helps identify three key features of the sharing economy: consumer-to-consumer interaction, temporary access and physical goods. These features also play a critical role in helping the authors distinguish the sharing economy from other forms of platform economy, including the product-service economy, the second-hand economy and the on-demand economy. The authors unveil economic and historical reasons for the emergence of the sharing economy and explore the economic, social and environmental sustainability impacts of the sharing economy platforms. They conclude that indirect sustainability effects are still largely unknown. The chapter ends with reflections on current and future regulations for the sharing economy. The authors see future research focus on the diversity of platforms in terms of their governance, scalability and impacts.