The sharing economy as the commons of the 21st century

Abstract

This article aims to make a contribution to the debate on how contemporary collaborative commons, as part of the wider sharing economy, can be understood and supported. Three cases of contemporary commons are analysed: a DIY bike repair studio, a pop-up home office concept and Wikipedia. The article shows how the design principles developed for governing natural resource commons are only partly applicable to these contemporary commons. It also illustrates the differences in these types of commons in terms of the nature of the resource being shared, scarcity, barriers to entry and how rules are formulated and upheld.