Report on Urban Sharing in Melbourne

As part of the Urban Sharing and Sharing and the City projects, IIIEE researchers Oksana Mont, Yuliya Voytenko Palgan, Andrius Plepys and Ana Maria Arbelaez Velez conducted an online Mobile Research Lab to explore the landscape of the sharing economy in the city context and produced a report “Urban Sharing in Melbourne”. The report focuses on sharing in three sectors: space, mobility, and physical goods. For each sector, drivers and barriers for the sharing economy are explored, associated sustainability impacts and impacts on incumbent sectors are discussed, and the institutional context is analysed. The researchers have also investigated the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on sharing economy organisations and their response strategies. The role of selected municipal governments in Melbourne in engaging with the sharing economy and specific governance mechanisms employed by them are discussed.

The report concludes that the sharing economy in Melbourne is among the most vibrant and diverse in Australia. Most people typically are aware of the larger sharing platforms, such as Uber and Airbnb, and sometimes local car-sharing initiatives like GoGet or CarNextDoor. However, many smaller initiatives remain virtually unknown and struggle to scale up. The sharing economy has also a small place in public governance agendas regarding sustainable development. It has the potential to contribute to multiple city agendas, including but not limited to the circular economy and climate change. The report “Urban Sharing in Melbourne” is number four in the series of reports produced by Urban Sharing researchers. Earlier reports analysed the sharing economy in Amsterdam, Toronto and Shanghai.