Fostering Collaborative Practices: The Governance of Sharing Economy

One of the most important waves of social innovation that is growing in the last few years is the diffusion of collaborative practices, frequently named as sharing economy. These practices deal with different dimensions of the social life, such as working, housing, caring children or aged people. There is an increasing debate on the economic and social impact of these practices, both on the positive side (mutual help, sociability, welfare cost reductions, etc.), and on the negative one (the inequalities they may foster, their use as a justification for a retrenchment of welfare services, the increasing share of for-profit venture, etc.). But there is still no general understanding on the role public institutions may have to govern this phenomenon and to rule over its effects. The literature describes several empirical case of both bottom-up and top-down governing strategies usually deployed at the Municipal level, but little on their implication on inequalities. Departing from existing knowledge, we first propose to focus on how different local administrations can tackle the sharing economy practices and to consider in particular the problems of potential inequalities associated with specific sharing practices. We then look at two local administrations, Mantua and Milan, which have tried to govern these practices in diverse manners so to assess their social implications. We thus expect to shed light on the impact the local governance of sharing economy has on our cities.