Zur Information und Weiterleitung
Herzliche Grüße
Alexandra Palzkill
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Call for Paper: <www.springer.com/economics/environmental/journal/550>
Special Issue of the Sustainability Management Forum (*SMF)
*The Sharing Economy and Beyond -- Challanges and Opportunities for a
more Sustainable Economy*
*Submission deadline: 15 January 2019*
Various and complex sustainability challenges exert increasing pressure
on modern societies and economic systems. A key dilemma when dealing
with these challenges is that natural resource consumption and
environmental pollution are interlinked with economic growth and social
welfare. Thus, implementing the sustainability goals determined at
various political levels (such as the SDGs) requires new and alternative
response strategies within society at large, but also in the design of
economic systems of consumption and production.
Alternative economic approaches are thus becoming more and more relevant
and various concepts ranging from sharing to collaborative, circular
economies or product-service systems are being discussed. Especially the
emerging forms of a sharing economy are advocated as a potentially more
sustainable way of organizing production and consumption: less
ownership-oriented patterns of consumption, prolonged product lifecycles
and intensified use as well as more collaborative and decentralized
models of consumption and production could have meaningful environmental
and social impact – especially when these strategies are developed as
part of an alternative, more sustainability-oriented economic system as
a whole.
However, what can be observed currently is that driven by digitalization
(as one of the major driving forces), the sharing economy has
materialized in the form of rapidly growing and globally operating
platform providers such as Uber and Airbnb. A critical discussion has
developed focusing on these actors and this specific version of the
sharing economy. Major issues are rebound effects and sharing business
models as yet another driver of high levels of consumption and growth.
The case of the sharing economy might thus be a typical example of
successful upscaling from the niche to the mainstream at the expense of
sustainable development.
In particular, we invite theoretical, empirical, practice-oriented and
review papers on the following issues and questions:
* How leverage the potential of the sharing economy or other
alternative forms of sustainable economies? Can the sharing economy
be scaled up in sustainable ways? In what ways does the sharing
economy produce positive social and environmental outcomes?
* To what extent are social/environmental sustainability and economic
sustainability of sharing or other alternative business models
compatible?
* Digitalization as a societal mega-trend: How is it related to a
sustainable economy? Is it a driver or a threat? What role do
technological and social innovations play in this context?
* What is the potential of digitalization for broadening the impact of
sustainable sharing practices or related practices of sustainable
consumption and production?
* What is the role of different actors – politics, business, civil
society, individuals - in aligning the sharing economy with
sustainability objectives? What is the impact of different groups of
actors in developing framework conditions, regulation, social
practices and innovations towards a more sustainable economy?
* Platform-cooperativism, blockchain, etc.: What is the potential of
technological innovation and new organizational approaches to drive
the transition towards a sustainable economy?
These themes are only indicative. We particularly invite contributions
from interdisciplinary perspectives as well as from practitioners and
policy-makers.
All enquiries regarding the special issue should be sent to:
palzkill@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
--
Dr. Alexandra Palzkill
Leiterin SÖF-Nachwuchsgruppe
"Upscaling-Strategien für eine Urban Sharing Society" (UrbanUp)
Zentrum für Transformationsforschung und Nachhaltigkeit (TransZent)
Centre for Transformation Research and Sustainability
Bergische Universität Wuppertal
Fakultät für Wirtschaftswissenschaft
– Schumpeter School of Business and Economics
Gaußstr. 20
42119 Wuppertal
Tel.: +49 202 74746442
