Many-to-many exchange without money: why people share their resources

Abstract

This paper extends our knowledge of the growing movement of collaborative consumption, or people sharing with others, in a collective shift away from the outright purchase of things. The focus of the study is on the sharing of land, one of our most widely held and debt-laden assets, for food production, a fundamental human need that has not been the topic of other collaborative consumption research. The research presents a netnographic study of the motivations to participate in Landshare, a non-profit scheme operating in the UK, Canada, and Australia, which "connects growers to people with land to share". The study finds there are significant social belonging and other benefits stemming from collaborative consumption and, in the case of Landshare, a new finding not previously reported in consumer behaviour research, of physical and mental health benefits. This expands the study of exchange as a consumer-to-consumer phenomenon, where no money changes hands.

No one rides for free! Three styles of collaborative consumption

“…Participants can also trade and organize the redistribution of goods through alternative marketplaces (i.e., offline), such as Freecycle, Freegle, or Really Really Free Markets (Albinsson and Perera, 2012;Martin et al, 2015). Others swap or redistribute food (Gollnhofer et al, 2016;Schor et al, 2016), or they organize the production of food through LandShare (McArthur, 2015). Participants in such non-compensated practices are mostly motivated by the social benefits of communal belonging, a pro-environmental ideology, and principles of justice (Albinsson and Perera, 2012;Gollnhofer et al, 2016;McArthur, 2015;Ozanne and Ballantine, 2010).…”

“…This also includes collaborative consumption, un-consumption and other alternatives to market practices with a sense of sustainability and community (Albinsson and Perera, 2012). In particular, no money is involved in anti-consumption practices where participants trade and organize the distribution of their assets (i.e., skills, goods) for free (Gollnhofer et al, 2016;McArthur, 2015).…”

“…Others swap or redistribute food (Gollnhofer et al, 2016;Schor et al, 2016), or they organize the production of food through LandShare (McArthur, 2015). Participants in such non-compensated practices are mostly motivated by the social benefits of communal belonging, a pro-environmental ideology, and principles of justice (Albinsson and Perera, 2012;Gollnhofer et al, 2016;McArthur, 2015;Ozanne and Ballantine, 2010). Eventually, one's cultural background can influence sharing practices, such as the rituals of hospitality among family and friends in Asian and Western cultures (Belk, 2010), or the more relaxed norms (i.e., less individualistic and materialistic) in Spain than in North America (Belk and Llamas, 2012).…”

Pratiques collaboratives et habitus consumériste : une analyse des mécanismes transformatifs de la consommation collaborative

“…Certaines pratiques comme l'achat groupé, le commerce CtoC et l'économie de l'accès constitueraient donc des pratiques qui, au lieu de ralentir les désirs de consommation, participent à soutenir l'idéologie consumériste et à attiser les flammes de son feu (Belk et al, 2003). Ce paradoxe ainsi que les discours équivoques à l'égard du développement durable (Robert et al, 2014) ouvrent des perspectives intéressantes pour les travaux relatifs à la non-possession Lawson, 2011 ;Moeller et Wittkowski, 2010) et/ou aux échanges non monétaires (McArthur, 2014, Scaraboto, 2015.…”

“…Si les chercheurs se sont intéressés au phénomène (Arnould et Rose, 2014 ;Bardhi et Dalli, 2014 ;Belk, 2014a ;2014b ;Garcia-Bardidia, 2014 ;McArthur, 2014 ;Scaraboto, 2015 ;Schor, 2014 ;Schor et al, 2016) ce sont d'abord les travaux des consultants (Botsman et Rogers, 2011 ;Gansky, 2010 ;Novel, 2012) qui ont contribué à façonner des représentations aux connotations très positives largement diffusées par les médias et sur la toile (John, 2012 ;. Cette vision idéalisée, voire naïve (John, 2013), présente la consommation collaborative comme une rupture dans les modes d'échanges qui permettrait aux individus d'entrer dans une nouvelle ère du partage rendue possible par l'essor du web 2.0.…”