Talk given at Södertörns högskolan on April 24, 2017

1. S H A R I N G E C O N O M I E S
I N S I G H T S F R O M A C A D E M I C R E S E A R C H
A B O U T P E E R - T O - P E E R E X C H A N G E A N D G I G W O R K
Airi Lampinen
airi@dsv.su.se
airilampinen.fi

2. 1. A (very) short introduction
2. Economic and social encounters
3. Beyond the individual
4. Reciprocity and indebtedness
5. Exclusion and discrimination
T H I S L E C T U R E

4. 1
“ T H E S H A R I N G E C O N O M Y ”

5. Access > Ownership

6. Unused Value = Waste

8. • The sharing economy is an emerging phenomenon that
encompasses the use of networked tools to enable a range
of social and economic exchanges, such as hospitality
exchange, shared mobility, and recycling/co-use of goods.
• The term is not very helpful analytically – it means different
things for different people, even when it comes to specific
platforms.
• Collaborative consumption? Collaborative economy?
Exchange platforms? Peer-to-peer exchange?
“ T H E S H A R I N G E C O N O M Y ” ?

9. • An increasingly dominant concept for describing
and understanding the social web (in HCI
but also in communication and media studies)
• A term used to highlight how systems do not
arrange or automate the activities themselves, but
rather create multi-sided markets that facilitate
exchange and allow for new configurations of work
P L AT F O R M S

10. • A shift from technical to socio-technical focus: [P]latforms
are platforms not necessarily because they allow code to
be written or run, but because they afford an opportunity to
communicate, interact, or sell (Gillespie, 2010)
• Critical perspectives: Rather than mediating and
brokering exchange in a passively enabling manner, these
socio-technical systems spell out and propose through
their affordances, more or less forcefully, particular sets of
relations among different actors (Ilten, 2015)
P L AT F O R M S

11. 2
S O C I A L A N D E C O N O M I C
E N C O U N T E R S

12. • Money as an initial motivation
• Valued social interaction with guests
• Gratification of being a good host
• Ancillary benefits of hosting
M O N E TA RY A N D I N T E R P E R S O N A L
M O T I VAT I O N S N E E D N O T B E
C O N T R A D I C T O RY
(Lampinen & Cheshire, 2016)

13. • Financial transactions need not be a break from the
ideals of ‘sharing’
• Monetary exchange can act as a gateway to further
social exchange and interpersonal interaction
• The presence of money can facilitate managing
expectations and provide flexibility
M O N E Y I S I M P O R TA N T
( B U T N O T T H E O N LY M O T I VAT I O N )
(Lampinen & Cheshire, 2016)

14. • Facilitate the core peer-to-peer transactions
(e.g. managing payments; ‘paymentless payment’)
• Reduce uncertainties (e.g. help resolve conflicts)
• (Financial) assurance structures can encourage
decisions to try out participation
W H AT K I N D O F S U P P O R T D O U S E R S
VA L U E F R O M M A R K E T P L A C E S ?
(Lampinen & Cheshire, 2016)

15. • With Uber, the app not only manages the allocation
of work – it affects drivers’ livelihoods, jobs and
employment
• Challenge for HCI: Designing for labour and working
with the ecology surrounding these new markets
• Algorithmically managed gig work
G I G W O R K A N D L A B O U R
(Glöss, McGregor & Brown, 2016;
Raval & Dourish, 2016;
Rosenblat & Stark, 2016)

16. H O W C O M M O N I S I T
F O R T H O S E I N V O LV E D
T O TA K E PA R T O N
B O T H S I D E S O F T H E M A R K E T ?

17. 3
B E Y O N D
T H E I N D I V I D U A L

18. New marketplaces affect not only those who
choose to participate but also
• those who are excluded
• those who do not wish to participate
• those who get pulled into exchange
processes without their own initiative
C O N S I D E R T H E C O N T E X T

19. • A service where members can engage in
hospitality exchange by hosting visitors
or by staying with others as guests
• People often live and travel with others,
so a focus on a host–guest dyad can be
misleading
S H A R I N G A S A G R O U P
(Lampinen 2014; Lampinen 2016)

20. 1. Presenting multiple people in one profile
2. Coordinating and negotiating responses to
CouchRequests
3. Sharing the benefits of a good reputation
A C C O U N T S H A R I N G
“And then you can put multiple pictures or you can describe,
but there’s no way to actually say we are this person, this person
and this person. And not all of us have a way to log in
and see the site unless we just share my login.”
(Lampinen 2014)

21. • Indebtedness may be a bigger concern
than free-riding
• People are often hesitant to ask for help,
but find it rewarding to contribute
• Bartering for others as one way to reduce
the discomfort
B A R T E R I N G F O R O T H E R S
“I just said that I can keep an eye out
for skates of his size and then there
happened to be a pair [on offer].”
(Lampinen et al, 2013)

22. 4
R E C I P R O C I T Y
A N D I N D E B T E D N E S S

23. L O C A L O N L I N E E X C H A N G E
• Knocking on the door of an exchange partner:
Can I trust a stranger? How will the interaction
play out?
• Negotiating reciprocity
• Managing fears of free-riding and
indebtedness
(Lampinen et al, 2015;
Lampinen et al, 2013;
Suhonen et al, 2010)

24. Social'exchange'is'vital'to'social'
interac1on,'community,'and'solidarity'
'
The$norm$of$reciprocity$
$ $ reciprocity$can$increase$solidarity$
between$exchange$partners$through$
either$symbolic$or$communica8ve$
value$over$and$above$the$instrumental$
value$of$the$benefits$provided $$
$(Molm$et$al.$$2007)$
$
$
$
$
$
$
$
$
$
Sense$of$Indebtedness$
$ a$state$of$tension$having$mo5va5onal$
proper5es$such$that$the$greater$its$
magnitude,$the$greater$will$be$the$
efforts$to$reduce$it $$
$(Greenberg$and$Shapiro,$1971)$
$
$
$
$
$
$
(Lampinen et al, 2013)

25. Eagerness(To(Contribute(
• Consistent)expression)of)reward)from)
contribu5ng)something)of)value)to)others)in)
the)community)
• Receiving)an)item)or)favor)from)others)o<en)
led)to)desire)to)give)something)away)
Aversion(to(Indebtedness(and(
Percep7ons(of(Fairness(
• Common)descrip5ons)of)uncomfortable,)
awkward,)unpleasant)feelings)of)
indebtedness)when)receiving)something)
without)giving)anything)in)return)
• It)was)generally)considered)be@er)to)give%too%
much)than)to)feel)indebted)to)others)
)So…how)do)
users)respond)to)
feelings)of)
indebtedness?)
Primary(Themes(From(User(Descrip7ons(
of(Exchange(Experiences(
(
(Lampinen et al, 2013)

26. 5
E X C L U S I O N
A N D
D I S C R I M I N AT I O N

29. • Desire to experience “strangeness”, yet selectivity
regarding which “strangers” to engage with
• The tendency of individuals to associate and bond
with similar others can be a source of discrimination
T H E T E N D E N C Y T O P R E F E R
T H O S E W H O A R E L I K E U S
“I try to give a good picture of who I am in the profile
because then the guest who is interested in staying at
my place will likely be a kind of person whom I am
interested in hosting. — And mostly the guests who
end up at my place are quite similar to me.”
(Ikkala & Lampinen, 2015)

30. M O T I VAT I O N I S N O T
A LWAY S E N O U G H
“Because you’re a single parent, you tend
to not have enough time. Because you
don’t have enough time, it’s harder to get
the resources that you would need to
make being a single parent easier.”
• While direct monetary investment may not be required, other
issues, such as the necessity to plan ahead and commit time,
may block access to participation and its benefits
• In a single parents’ community, participants wanted to connect
with others in similar situations. At the same time, they needed
resources that others in similar circumstances were likely to lack
(Lampinen, Huotari & Cheshire, 2015)

31. • For whom is it easy to take part in your marketplace?
• Do those involved act on both sides of the market?
• What is the role of money in inclusion/exclusion?
• Rather than fend off discrimination, can you actively
promote anti-discrimination?
W H O C A N PA R T I C I PAT E ?
H O W E A S I LY ?

32. P U B L I C AT I O N S
AVA I L A B L E AT
A I R I L A M P I N E N . F I