Let’s put the collaborative economy at the service of territories!

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This post aims to explore the opportunities that may arise with the spread of the collaborative economy on a given territory. It is based on the work of Benjamin Tincq and Diana Filippova - Ouishare Connectors – about collaborative territories in France. As part of the research conducted in partnership with the CG92 - Hauts de Seine “département”- they wrote an essay (in French) published in Les Entretiens Albert Kahn , and they co-organized a workshop with policy makers on October 8 th with Samuel Roumeau from Sharitories. Their contribution is an important input to the Sharitories program and the prospective Collaborative Territories Toolkit, especially since it is extremely well documented and conceived as a call for concrete action at local level.

Ouishare defines the collaborative economy as the wide range of practices and economic models based on horizontal structures and communities’ contribution . A collaborative territory is defined as a territory that hosts and nurtures practices, projects, spaces and tools from the collaborative economy to the benefits of an open, horizontal and abundant territory . Put simply, the central question behind this definition can be asked as follows: on which kind of territory do we want to live collectively? Ouishare created a typology to explain the contours of this notion of collaborative territory. It articulates around three components: shared territories, productive territories, and territories as commons .

Shared territories envision the territory as a platform. They host the fast growing collaborative consumption, whose development has been facilitated by the multiplication of (hyper) local systems and global platforms. Systems such as ridesharing, bikesharing, coworking, local food consumption and production, or p2p home rentals have emerged quickly in the mid 2000s. While these are the most frequently implemented collaborative services on territories, they sometimes create tensions and controversies, especially in the hotel and taxi sectors. These sharing systems promote usage rather than possession of material goods, and favour horizontal organization and reduced roles of intermediaries. As these systems need a very local critical mass, the local territory is a very good entry point to supporting their development. The explosion of collaborative consumption on territories concerns several sectors. First, mobility is probably the most dynamic sector with the development of long distance ridesharing (Blablacar), instant ridesharing (Lyft), p2p car rentals (Drivy), or even shared cars and bikes (Autolib’ and Velib’ in Paris). Second, the food sector puts emphasis on local production, distribution and consumption (the most famous initiative is La Ruche Qui Dit Oui). Third, the tourism sector is also boiling with various initiatives such as p2p house rentals (AirBnb), Couchsurfing, sharing food at one’s place (Cookening), or p2p travel experiences (Vayable).

Productive territories consist in relocalizing, distributing and connecting the production through a network of infrastructures such as fablabs and makerspaces, and open source diffusion. Free circulation of data allows a localized fabrication of goods with a shift from PITO (“Product In Trash Out”) to DIDO (“Data In Data Out”) model. This model supposes the democratization of production means such as 3D printers, the sharing of knowledge , and the organization of trainings . Barcelona is the most advanced territory and is often shown as the first Fab City with high objectives: reaching 100% of energy production, and 50% of both goods and food production locally. The prosumer is the new changemaker between the consumer and the producer, and its action will extend beyond the digital sphere. In a previous interview, Tomas Diez asserts that “ digital fabrication will move to people’s homes, just like happened with computation” .

Territories as commons engage into an open and wide consultation of citizens who are encouraged to participate in local governance. Citizens are directly involved in local public services delivery, in the political process, and the citizen management. Commonalized territories distinguish four levels of action : the use and share of information directly produced by citizens with the use of OpenStreetMap for instance, the use of crowdfunding to finance local projects, citizens involvement in governance through participatory budgeting and co-creation of local public policies, and citizens involvement into territorial infrastructure governance such as energy production cooperatives or local currencies. The notion of territories as commons can be developed trhough the interview with Christian Iaione and Bologna being part of the project “ Cities as Commons”.

Drawing up a collaborative territory vision supposes a close connection between all the various stakeholders, as well as a human-sized space – be it a city, an agglomeration, or a region. There is nothing like a standard solution to engage towards collaborative territory giving that every space has a unique history, demography, culture and so on. Restoring trust between citizens and local government is the first step, and the second one is the feeling of being a local community.

The nature of governance is a crucial point to co-create a successful collaborative territory and includes alliances between three key actors: policy makers, local businesses, and citizens. The public-private partnership has been tried in Seoul with the “Sharing Economy Advisory Board”. Three local government officials and twelve persons from the private sphere compose it. BayShare, in San Francisco, is a mixed association of sharing economy companies, and NGOs with a moderate position (see also the interview with ShareNL ). They strive to develop collaborative territories and lead reflection on transition towards more collaboration. From all the examples over the world, it appears that cooperation between all key actors is always more fruitful with less negative externalities for citizens than mere confrontation. Rethinking the legislation is necessary to move forward.

The collaborative economy offers ideas, tools, examples and keys for action to transform your territory into a prosperous, attractive space favoring strong social links, economic vitality, diversity, and innovation. Initiatives mainly emerge thanks to active citizens, associations or startups. These changemakers see their ideas transform into actions very quickly with the new technologies, which tends to destabilize the slow process of local governments. Here are three components to pay attention to as a local governments. First, in terms of public policy objectives, Shareable report “Policies for Shareable cities” identifies four axis: transport and ridesharing, food and distribution, third places and collaborative spaces, startups and medium companies. Neal Gorenflo explains the role of The Sharing Cities Network in his recent interview . Second, there is an urgent need to align with the interests of the different actors, and a mixed executive board can pave the way to more efficient policies. Third, every territory being unique, it is important that each of them realizes the limits of its action in terms of collaborative economy. Nevertheless, local competencies are always large enough to identify collaborative opportunities and to transform them into concrete actions. As April Rinne mentioned it in the last interview , it is important to “meet cities where they are”.

The participative workshop with the CG92, in the suburbs of Paris, highlighted the fact that people working in public administration lack a precise comprehension of collaborative economy and its related stakes. The Sharitories project and its practical component – the Collaborative Territories Toolkit – aims to raise awareness and give information to policy makers at local level. It is a first step before local governments are able to give visibility and credit to collaborative initiatives on territories, which emerged as one of the first simple action to implement.

Stina HEIKKILA & Samuel ROUMEAU

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