Connecting the Digital and the Ecological Transitions

Dans Shareable, Nathan Schneider revient sur l'économie du partage et prévient : si celle-ci se désintéresse de la propriété, celle-ci ne se désintéresse pas d'eux. Autrement dit, soit l'économie du partage s'appuie sur des formes diverses de propriété partagée (y compris les "communs"), soit elle profitera à quelques grandes plateformes privées à tendance monopolistiques, telles que nous les voyons émerger aujourd'hui.

This is not the first time people have longed to replace owning with sharing, to forgo property through community. In the Middle Ages, say: The early followers Francis of Assisi at first sought to do away with property altogether, to use without having to own. It may be an ambition worth pursuing. But to ensure their autonomy, and to protect their growing movement in the feudal world in which they lived, the Franciscans ended up having to hold communal property, though they managed it very differently than the neighboring lords did.

There are many ways to own. Simply giving up on ownership, however, will mean that those who actually do own the tools that we rely on to share will control them. People who want an economy of genuine sharing are coming to recognize that they must embrace ownership — and, as they do, they're changing what owning means altogether.