The emergence of the sharing city: A systematic literature review to understand the notion of the sharing city and explore future research paths

Sánchez-Vergara, José Ignacio; Ginieis, Matías; Papaoikonomou, Eleni

Abstract:

The Sharing City is a concept that has emerged in recent years as a new notion for urban development. The Sharing City shares common discursive ground with the Sharing Economy, which is now in vogue. However, the sharing city adopts a clear human centric focus which differentiates it from other city labels or the more economic, commercial focus of previous literature on the sharing economy. The concept of the sharing city focuses, to a great extent, on how people interact with each other in order to share resources, spaces, infrastructures experiences etc within the city. Sharing city projects emphasize citizen and community participation and promote values such as social justice, well-being and sustainability. But also, by engaging in sharing practices, actors transform the city. This study analyses for first time the academic landscape of the sharing city and its social practices using a systematic literature review methodology. It is based on a systematic search of the literature in the WOS and Scopus databases resulting in the review of 80 peer-reviewed papers. Our systematic literature review shows how previous literature in this field has evolved over time. Also, it focuses on the social practices linked to the sharing city and presents in what contexts sharing in the city is taking place, what actors have led the initiatives, what disciplines have studied the sharing city and what objectives the sharing city sets. Then, gaps and future research lines are discussed. Although the sharing city has been studied mainly by certain specific disciplines, it is a concept with a multidisciplinary nature that invites new approaches and focusses. Also, implications for practitioners are suggested.

Year:

2021

Type of Publication:

Article

Keywords:

Sharing city; Social practices; Systematic literature review; Sharing economy; Co-creation; Sustainability

Journal:

Journal of Cleaner Production

Volume:

295

Pages:

126448

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.126448