Abstract
The emerging sharing economy gives rise to a new controversial type of business built on online peer-to-peer markets and characterized by concepts such as swapping, exchanging, shared ownership, social value, renting, or crowdfunding. A set of social changes are attached to such economy as; the shift from ownership to access (Botsman & Rogers, 2010; Gansky, 2010; Tapscott, 2006), the creation of new distributed marketplaces of products and services nearly free given the digitalization of physical goods (Rifkin, 2014), or the transition from a passive consumer to a new actor named "prosumer"" (Anderson, 2012; Tapscott, 2006).
This PhD project seeks to place itself as an exploratory and sociological study into the emerging sharing economy accomplishing 3 main research objectives. Firstly, this project gives the major importance to 1) develop a rigorous critical analysis of the study field within an historical sociology frame deepening in different theories, definitions, approaches and perspectives in an effort to construct a larger and explanatory narrative.
Secondly, as a complementary support to the investigation, the research 2) tracks and examines the user evolution of 42 sharing platforms in European countries throughout the PhD period; and 3) explores and analyzes socio-cultural changes attached to this new economic model. This paper focuses all its attention solely in the first objective.
The methodology to be implemented follows primarily, a qualitative strategy, particularly an ethnographic approach. Thus, bibliographic references, in-depth interviews and case studies will be taken to explore the core of the sharing economy along the time