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Open Access Quantifying the sharing economy: An approach for measuring the ecological, social, and economic effects

This article is Open Access under the terms of the Creative Commons CC BY licence.

The sharing economy is often considered either the most promising “pathway to a sustainable market economy” or, conversely, a “hyper-capitalistic” exploitation of natural and social resources. Such contrasting images can influence the societal valuation of sharing economy models, thereby misleading or hindering processes of transformation. Approaches toward quantifying the sharing economy have the potential for enriching societal knowledge and, in the process, fuelling societal transformation as the ecological, social, and economic effects of such developments as carsharing become apparent.

Keywords: quantification; sharing economy; societal valuation; sustainability transformation

Document Type: Research Article

Publication date: January 1, 2019

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  • GAIA is a peer-reviewed academic journal dedicated to inter- and transdisciplinary research on and for sustainability transformations.

    Environmental problems cannot be solved by one academic discipline. The complex natures of these problems require cooperation across disciplinary boundaries. Since 1991, GAIA has offered a well-balanced and practice-oriented forum for transdisciplinary research. GAIA offers first-hand information on state of the art environmental research and on current solutions to environmental problems. Well-known editors, advisors, and authors work to ensure the high quality of the contributions found in GAIA and a unique transdisciplinary dialogue – in a comprehensible style.

    GAIA is an ISI-journal, listed in the Science Citation Index Expanded, Social Science Citation Index and in Current Contents/Social and Behavioral Sciences.

    All contributions undergo a double-blind peer review.

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