Sharing Cities: A Sustainable Urban Model Driven by ICT and Community Engagement

Why It Matters

This approach offers a framework for designing more sustainable urban environments by promoting resource efficiency and fostering community participation. It challenges traditional ownership models and encourages innovative service design that benefits both users and the city.

Key Finding

The Sharing City model is enabled by technological and societal shifts, driven by community and government support, but faces challenges in outdated legal structures. It has the potential for broad urban benefits.

Key Findings

• Structural economic changes, the recent economic crisis, evolving attitudes towards ownership, and ICT advancements are key enablers of the Sharing City concept.
• Driving forces include robust ICT infrastructure, active civil society, and supportive city administrations.
• Obstacles are primarily found in legal frameworks, particularly in sectors like food, transportation, housing, and employment, due to both restrictive regulations and a lack of specific sharing-focused policies.
• Sharing Cities offer benefits across economic, environmental, social, and democratic dimensions, though commercial expansion poses a potential criticism.

Research Evidence

Aim: What are the key drivers, obstacles, and potentials of the 'Sharing City' concept in fostering sustainable urban development?

Method: Mixed-methods research including literature analysis, qualitative interviews, and case studies.

Procedure: The study analyzed existing literature on the sharing economy and urban development, conducted interviews with relevant stakeholders, and examined three specific case studies of cities implementing sharing initiatives.

Context: Urban development and the sharing economy.

Design Principle

Design for resource optimization through collaborative consumption and community-driven initiatives.

How to Apply

When designing urban services or products, consider how they can be shared, reused, or accessed collaboratively to reduce consumption and waste.

Limitations

The study's findings may be context-specific to the case studies examined, and the rapid evolution of the sharing economy means some conditions may have changed since 2014.

Student Guide (IB Design Technology)

Simple Explanation: Cities can become more sustainable by encouraging people to share things like cars, tools, or even living spaces, using technology to make it easy and building community support.

Why This Matters: Understanding the Sharing City concept helps in designing projects that address urban sustainability challenges, promoting efficient resource use and community engagement.

Critical Thinking: To what extent can the 'Sharing City' model truly address systemic issues of overconsumption, or does it risk merely optimizing existing unsustainable patterns?

IA-Ready Paragraph: The 'Sharing City' concept, as examined by Dlugosz (2014), highlights the potential for urban environments to become more sustainable by fostering collaborative consumption, enabled by advancements in ICT and strong community engagement. This model addresses issues of overconsumption and underutilized resources, offering a framework for designing more efficient and community-oriented urban systems.

Project Tips

• Investigate existing sharing initiatives in your local area or a chosen city.
• Consider how technology can be used to overcome barriers to sharing.
• Explore the social and economic impacts of sharing models.

How to Use in IA

• Use the concept of Sharing Cities to frame a design project focused on sustainable urban solutions.
• Reference the study's findings on drivers and obstacles when justifying design choices or identifying areas for innovation.

Examiner Tips

• Demonstrate an understanding of how societal trends and technological advancements enable new design paradigms like the Sharing City.
• Critically evaluate the potential challenges and limitations of implementing sharing models in different urban contexts.

Independent Variable: ["Availability of ICT infrastructure","Strength of civil society engagement","Accommodation of city administration","Vibrancy of sharing business scene","Legal and regulatory frameworks"]

Dependent Variable: ["Emergence and success of Sharing City initiatives","Economic benefits","Environmental benefits","Social benefits","Democratic benefits"]

Controlled Variables: ["Urbanization rate","Economic conditions","Societal attitudes towards ownership"]

Strengths

• Comprehensive literature review providing theoretical grounding.
• Use of multiple case studies offering diverse perspectives on implementation.
• Qualitative interviews providing in-depth insights from stakeholders.

Critical Questions

• How do the identified obstacles in legal frameworks vary significantly across different types of sharing services (e.g., transportation vs. housing)?
• What are the long-term economic implications for traditional businesses when sharing models become dominant?

Extended Essay Application

• Investigate the feasibility of a sharing model for a specific underutilized resource within a school or local community.
• Design a business plan and prototype for a sharing service, considering potential regulatory hurdles and community engagement strategies.

Source

The Rise of the Sharing City: Examining Origins and Futures of Urban Sharing · Lund University Publications Student Papers (Lund University) · 2014 · 10.13140/rg.2.2.18890.77763