[ecrea] CfP: Special Issue on Regulating the Sharing Economy

*Call for Papers for Special Issue of Internet Policy Review on *

**Regulating the ‘Sharing Economy'**

*http://policyreview.info/node/371*

**

*Special Issue editors:* Kris Erickson, Research Fellow, CREATe,
University of Glasgow & Inge Sørensen, Research Fellow, CCPR, University
of Glasgow.

You are ‘the new infrastructure’, an entrepreneur breathlessly explains
to the Wall Street Journal in a recent piece on sharing economy
start-ups (9 March 2015).  Conceived in the early 2000s to describe
alternative practices of creativity and distribution, the sharing
economy has become the rallying call for an array of new businesses
which rely on networked connectivity of users willing to exchange, sell
and purchase services from one another. The co-optation of online
‘gifting’ by capitalist interests is a story which traces the
progression of many digital social phenomena, from community discussion
fora to digital video youth culture. The sharing economy raises
important issues for regulators: When does ‘sharing’ cease to be a
private activity and become a public concern? When do affective
relationships become exploitative? When is something a gift, and when is
it labour? How do we ensure that risks and costs are accurately
reflected in the provision of goods? And how should costs be divided
between collaborative consumers, businesses, and the public?


This special issue will consider both informal norms of governance as
well as formal legal structures governing sharing communities and
services. As a result, contributions are likely to touch on a range of
disciplines and approaches, including sociological, economic,
technological and legal. It is the hope of the editors that this
collection of individual contributions will lead to identification of
issues of theoretical importance across different configurations of
sharing economy practices, and help crystallise future areas of inquiry
for empirical study.

Contributions should focus on the impact of technological and social
innovation in this area, with specific reference to European societies
and digital regulatory frameworks. In particular, we seek papers which
address the following topics of interest for regulators:

•Crowdfunding and venture crowdfunding networks

•Economic impacts of sharing economy on traditional sectors

•Informal governance, ratings, reviews and crowd intelligence

•Future of transportation, utilities, and ‘smart’ urban provision

•Peer-to-peer production and distribution of media

•Alternative digital currencies, legal and financial systems

•Citizenship and civic engagement

•Open data, privacy and accountability

In addition to the above topics, we welcome proposals for original,
forward-looking contributions with a focus on the European digital
regulatory environment (or that of a national or local jurisdiction in
Europe). By critically examining this emerging topic, this special issue
will generate EU-specific understanding of policy issues, and expand our
scholarly understanding of economic and social trends with potential for
long-term impact.


This Call for Papers is open to researchers from the fields of policy
studies, sociology, law, philosophy, data, information and technology
studies, economics and management. Emerging scholars are particularly
encouraged to submit a proposal.

*Important dates*

7th September 2015: Deadline for expression of interest and abstract
submission (500 word abstracts) to the
(co-editorsKristofer.Erickson /at/ glasgow.ac.uk)
<mailto:(Kristofer.Erickson /at/ glasgow.ac.uk)> and
(Inge.Sorensen /at/ glasgow.ac.uk) <mailto:(Inge.Sorensen /at/ glasgow.ac.uk)>

29th September 2015: Feedback on abstract submissions

30th December 2015: Deadline for full text submission (max. 35,000
characters) to (editor /at/ hiig.de) <mailto:(editor /at/ hiig.de)>.

All details on text submissions can be found here:
http://policyreview.info/authors

*The Internet Policy Review* was established in 2013 as the first online
peer-reviewed journal on Internet Regulation in Europe. It aims to be a
resource on Internet policy for academics, civil society advocates,
entrepreneurs, the media and policy-makers alike. It is published on a

rolling quarterly basis by the Alexander von Humboldt Institute for
Internet and Society in Berlin. The editorial board consists of
Professor Mélanie Dulong de Rosnay (ISCC/CNRS, Paris), Professor Natali
Helberger (IViR, Amsterdam), Professor Jeanette Hofmann (Berlin Social
Science Center WZB), Professor Martin Kretschmer (CREATe, Glasgow)
andProfessor Wolfgang Schulz (Hans Bredow Institute, Hamburg).

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