Pratiche e retoriche della condivisione. Operatori della sharing economy e forme di innovazione economica, sociale e normativa

The lack of a shared definition of «sharing» is a recurring subject in the academic literature. In this article sharing economy is investigated as an umbrella term that refers to social innovation experiences in the context of the economic crisis that began in 2007-2008. In this framework there was a convergence between several processes: technological (the development of web 2.0 and the availability of apps that disintermediate the relations between producers and consumers), socio-cul- tural (the emergence of new forms of collaboration based on trust) and economic (in the form of new markets for investors and professional opportunities for individuals and families distressed because of the crisis); this convergence created the premises for the development of the sharing economy as an industry and as a cultural phenomenon. This contribution critically investigates the way industry operators are building, through their so- cial practices, an operational definition of sharing economy. The sample consists of 47 providers of goods/services belonging to 32 cases of sharing economy, interviewed with non-directive techniques in the frame of a national research that this special issue is devoted to. The analysis of empirical material draws on the following research question: through what practices and discursive forms do the sharing economy operators shape the theme of sharing? The results highlight the emphasis of operators on the theme of trust as consumer motivation, while economic reasons are underestimated; their self-presentation as carriers of economic, social and normative in- novation; a fideistic attitude towards sharing as a force of socio-economic change; an ideological view of the sharing economy. Criticism in the sharing economy is raised by small-scale service providers, while large platform operators show an acritic attitude towards the many problematic issues related to the sharing economy (tension between relational and commercial aspects, regulation, injunction to share, quality of the innovation produced by the sharing economy).