Sub-theme 69: The Politics of Sharing: Opening Innovation, Enlightening Co-creation, Transforming Society?
Call for Papers
Peer-to-peer (or sharing) economy is becoming a major part of contemporary capitalism. In this context, phenomena that
include ‘joint use’ and ‘mutuality’ become increasingly more visible in terms of value creation and capturing (Arnould &
Rose, 2016; Faraj et al., 2016; Giudici et al., 2018). Contemporary incarnations of old relational phenomena (see Mauss, 1923)
include work in online communities, co-production platforms, co-creation initiatives, open innovation, collaborative entrepreneurship,
collaborative spaces and movements (i.e. co-workers, makers and hackers) and more (Gächter et al., 2010; Daskalaki et al,
2015). If mutuality and sharing become more explicit in contemporary business practices and contemporary societies, can governance
actually keep up? Surprisingly, the politics and regulation of these phenomena are rarely covered by the literature in management
and organization studies.
Yet, the orchestration and regulation of platforms, fab labs, open source communities
and co-working spaces may require new modes of solidarity and forms of ‘togetherness’ or new corporate responsabilities (Djelic
& Etchanchu, 2015). In other words, the changes induced by the development of these new forms of collaboration are more
profound than often acknowledged. From then, various questions and concerns emerge: Do these new modes of governance resemble
hierarchies or markets? Do these forms of togetherness evoke resource mobilization as described in the collective action literature
(Melucci, 1996; Ostrom, 1998)? What theoretical tools are relevant to capture contemporary phenomena of network and community
governance?
Further questions arise within the context of the ever-greater level of interconnectedness that
underlies modern-day capitalism (Castells, 2013). In other words, what are the spatial consequences of these new collaborative
actions? What are the implications of growing collaboration for the city? Can alternative forms of organizing (e.g. lateral
collaboration, co-creation endeavours, etc.) conjure up new forms of governance for the city? What are the challenges underlying
the governance of smart cities (see Meijer & Bolivar, 2015)? What is the role of digital semiosis and digital infrastructures
in the societal transformations of the sharing economy (de Vaujany & Mitev, 2017)? All these questions led us to rethink
the role of politics and governance with regards to collaborative spaces and invite us to reflect over the ethical inspirations
of the aforementioned collaborative movements.
This sub-theme aims at exploring the political dimensions
of the sharing economy, its global infrastructures, its underlying political structures, its materiality, its transformative
effects for the city and its legitimacy structures. We take the phenomena of sharing and mutuality as starting points for
asking questions to organization theory that include but point beyond the firm and its current special and social context
of operation: online, urban, global, charitable or terrorist, parochial, destructive, utopian, etc. The material, spatial
and temporal dimensions of sharing economy and its political or regulatory processes (Djelic & Sahlin-Andersson, 2012;
de Vaujany et al., 2018) will be at the heart of this sub-theme.
We invite contributions that explore the
following topics:
Global infrastructures, global platforms, global political effects?
Reuse and sharing of content and code as political processes
The politics of open innovation, towards a new managerial democracy?
The politics of materiality and performativity of the sharing economy, its platforms, infrastructures and new work practices
Open source politics: Opening knowledge, opening political structures?
Network governance and open collaboration
New forms of co-politization
Regulation of platforms and the sharing economy
The politics of co-working in the city, the political effects on local territories;
The maker and hacker movements: DIY and DIT as social movement and new politics for the city
Smart city, collaboration and governance
The materiality and spatiality of the sharing economy and their performative effects
The sharing economy as a neo-liberal move (enacting capitalism differently?)
The ethics of collaboration
Hacker and maker movements as new ethics?
The space and time of the sharing economy as political dimensions
Gifts, counter-gifts and embodiment and the politics of the body and intercorporeity
References
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- Bardhi, F., Eckhardt, G.M., & Arnould, E.J. (2012): “Liquid Relationship to Possessions.” Journal of Consumer Research, 39, 510–529.
- Castells, M. (2013): Communication Power. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Daskalaki, M., Hjorth, D., & Mair, J. (2015): “Are entrepreneurship, communities, and social transformation related?” Journal of Management Inquiry, 24 (4), 419–423.
- de Vaujany, F-.X., & Mitev, N. (2017): “The post-Macy paradox, information management and organizing: good intentions and road to hell.” Culture & Organization, 23 (5), 379–407.
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