Week 4 – Case of Car Sharing
Key terms:
• Access-based consumption: transactions that can be market mediated but where
no transfer of ownership takes place
• Ownership: special relationship between a person and an object called “owning,”
and the object is called “personal property” or a “possession”
• Sharing: the act and process of distributing what is ours to others for their use,
and/or the act and process of receiving or taking something from others for our own
use
Introduction
• Ownership no longer the ultimate expression of consumer desire. Instead of buying
and owning, rather pay for experience of temporarily accessing them
• Models of access mediated by the marketplace gaining popularity thanks to the
Internet and capitalist marketplace that trades cultural resources rather than material
objects
• Differences in consumer preferences associated with possession vs access in peer-
to-peer (p2p) sharing online network
Access vs Ownership vs Sharing
• 2 major differences btw ownership and access:
o The nature of the object-self rship
§ Ownership: consumers identify with their possessions à part of
extended self; crucial in maintaining/ displaying/ transforming the self
§ Access: temporary and circumstantial
o The rules that govern and regulate this rship
§ Ownership: individual has full properly rights; enables freedom and
responsibility toward the object; clear boundaries btw self and others
(ie regulate/deny access, use/sell, transform structure etc)
§ Access: nature and governance of consumer-object and consumer-
to-consumer rships not well understood à focus of this study
• Access vs sharing
o Similarity: both don’t involve a transfer of ownership
o Difference:
§ Sharing
• Joint possessions are free for all to use and generate no
debts, and responsibilities (eg. caretaking) are shared
• Intentions usually altruistic
§ Access
• No transfer of ownership or joint ownership; consumer just
gains access to use
• Not necessarily altruistic or prosocial, but outlined by
economic exchange and reciprocity
Emergence of access-based consumption
• Early studies of access focus more on b2b sector.
• For consumer market, access was more to non-profit or public sphere rather than the
market eg libraries. Also looked at traditional rental forms like cars/ apartment rentals
• Previously:
o Ownership - Proclaimed as the more normative ideal based on cultural
values about perceived advantages of ownership over access. Eg; owning a
house is always better than renting because of certain privileges owners are
entitled to etc, also means you have stability (rites of adulthood)
o Access – more stigmatized, seen as inferior consumption mode. Consumers
also perceived to have lower financial power or status
, • Since last decade à Increase in access systems in marketplace beyond traditional
forms. Egs:
o Memberships
o Redistribution markets (p2p matching service eg Airbnb; social networks eg
Share some sugar, freecycle)
o Collaborative lifestyles – ppl with similar interest band together to share/
exchange less tangible assets like time, space, skills, money eg shared work
spaces, e-storage, gardens
• Why increased access?
o Digital tech à more self service à increased collaboration; not always
mediated by the market
o “Liquid society” – social structures and institutions increasingly unstable à
cannot serve as frames of references for human actions and long-term
strategies
§ What is valued (like ownership was previously) is ever changing.
Ownership promoted more solid emotional/ social/ property relations
§ Access is more transient à flexible and adaptable à suitable for
liquid consumer identity projects. Now seen as a way to manage the
challenges of a liquid society
o Global economic crisis à consumers re-examine spending habits, rethink
relationship btw ownership and well-being
o Structural shift in urban landscapes à reurbanization à more apartments
and condos in city centers (as opposed to owning a house in the suburbs)
Various forms of access
(6 dimensions on which various types of access differ from one another)
1. Temporality
• Vary in 2 ways:
o Duration of access
§ Short-term (onetime transaction. Eg renting car/ hotel room) vs
longitudinal (involves serial active/ dormant usage of the entity. Eg
membership in a community/ club eg car sharing (Zipcar), movie
sharing (Netflix) or a gym)
o Length of usage
§ Long-term use (Eg traditional car leasing for 1-2 years) vs limited use
(Eg hourly use in car-sharing models)
• Implications to object-consumer rship and consumer-consumer rship.
o Longitudinal access + long-term usage: consumers develop a perceived
sense of ownership (Eg: community gardens)
2. Anonymity
• Shapes rship with behaviour towards other consumers
• Happens in 2 ways:
o Interpersonal anonymity
§ Private (exclusive access to objects eg car/hotel rooms à infrequent
encounters with others à produces a society of strangers ) vs social
(object used in public context eg gardens, or shared with others eg
couch surfing à encourages sharing and prosocial behaviour)
o Spatial anonymity (proximity btw object and consumers)
§ More intimate context (eg regular use of the cars parked near ones
house) à sense of de facto ownership vs less intimate context (eg
cars accessed mainly in transportation hubs)
3. Market mediation
• Non-profit – p2p exchange and sharing, consumers gain access to objects and
services owned by other consumers tru use of tech. Eg. Land Share, share some
sugar
Key terms:
• Access-based consumption: transactions that can be market mediated but where
no transfer of ownership takes place
• Ownership: special relationship between a person and an object called “owning,”
and the object is called “personal property” or a “possession”
• Sharing: the act and process of distributing what is ours to others for their use,
and/or the act and process of receiving or taking something from others for our own
use
Introduction
• Ownership no longer the ultimate expression of consumer desire. Instead of buying
and owning, rather pay for experience of temporarily accessing them
• Models of access mediated by the marketplace gaining popularity thanks to the
Internet and capitalist marketplace that trades cultural resources rather than material
objects
• Differences in consumer preferences associated with possession vs access in peer-
to-peer (p2p) sharing online network
Access vs Ownership vs Sharing
• 2 major differences btw ownership and access:
o The nature of the object-self rship
§ Ownership: consumers identify with their possessions à part of
extended self; crucial in maintaining/ displaying/ transforming the self
§ Access: temporary and circumstantial
o The rules that govern and regulate this rship
§ Ownership: individual has full properly rights; enables freedom and
responsibility toward the object; clear boundaries btw self and others
(ie regulate/deny access, use/sell, transform structure etc)
§ Access: nature and governance of consumer-object and consumer-
to-consumer rships not well understood à focus of this study
• Access vs sharing
o Similarity: both don’t involve a transfer of ownership
o Difference:
§ Sharing
• Joint possessions are free for all to use and generate no
debts, and responsibilities (eg. caretaking) are shared
• Intentions usually altruistic
§ Access
• No transfer of ownership or joint ownership; consumer just
gains access to use
• Not necessarily altruistic or prosocial, but outlined by
economic exchange and reciprocity
Emergence of access-based consumption
• Early studies of access focus more on b2b sector.
• For consumer market, access was more to non-profit or public sphere rather than the
market eg libraries. Also looked at traditional rental forms like cars/ apartment rentals
• Previously:
o Ownership - Proclaimed as the more normative ideal based on cultural
values about perceived advantages of ownership over access. Eg; owning a
house is always better than renting because of certain privileges owners are
entitled to etc, also means you have stability (rites of adulthood)
o Access – more stigmatized, seen as inferior consumption mode. Consumers
also perceived to have lower financial power or status
, • Since last decade à Increase in access systems in marketplace beyond traditional
forms. Egs:
o Memberships
o Redistribution markets (p2p matching service eg Airbnb; social networks eg
Share some sugar, freecycle)
o Collaborative lifestyles – ppl with similar interest band together to share/
exchange less tangible assets like time, space, skills, money eg shared work
spaces, e-storage, gardens
• Why increased access?
o Digital tech à more self service à increased collaboration; not always
mediated by the market
o “Liquid society” – social structures and institutions increasingly unstable à
cannot serve as frames of references for human actions and long-term
strategies
§ What is valued (like ownership was previously) is ever changing.
Ownership promoted more solid emotional/ social/ property relations
§ Access is more transient à flexible and adaptable à suitable for
liquid consumer identity projects. Now seen as a way to manage the
challenges of a liquid society
o Global economic crisis à consumers re-examine spending habits, rethink
relationship btw ownership and well-being
o Structural shift in urban landscapes à reurbanization à more apartments
and condos in city centers (as opposed to owning a house in the suburbs)
Various forms of access
(6 dimensions on which various types of access differ from one another)
1. Temporality
• Vary in 2 ways:
o Duration of access
§ Short-term (onetime transaction. Eg renting car/ hotel room) vs
longitudinal (involves serial active/ dormant usage of the entity. Eg
membership in a community/ club eg car sharing (Zipcar), movie
sharing (Netflix) or a gym)
o Length of usage
§ Long-term use (Eg traditional car leasing for 1-2 years) vs limited use
(Eg hourly use in car-sharing models)
• Implications to object-consumer rship and consumer-consumer rship.
o Longitudinal access + long-term usage: consumers develop a perceived
sense of ownership (Eg: community gardens)
2. Anonymity
• Shapes rship with behaviour towards other consumers
• Happens in 2 ways:
o Interpersonal anonymity
§ Private (exclusive access to objects eg car/hotel rooms à infrequent
encounters with others à produces a society of strangers ) vs social
(object used in public context eg gardens, or shared with others eg
couch surfing à encourages sharing and prosocial behaviour)
o Spatial anonymity (proximity btw object and consumers)
§ More intimate context (eg regular use of the cars parked near ones
house) à sense of de facto ownership vs less intimate context (eg
cars accessed mainly in transportation hubs)
3. Market mediation
• Non-profit – p2p exchange and sharing, consumers gain access to objects and
services owned by other consumers tru use of tech. Eg. Land Share, share some
sugar
