Municipalities may engage with sharing economy initiatives through collaborative mechanisms where both parties play active roles in the governance process. At least two city roles can be identified here: the ‘city as a negotiator’ and the ‘city as a partner’.

Municipalities may govern sharing economy organisations by enabling or disabling them. As opposed to the mechanism of providing, enabling relies on intangible means like persuasion, argumentation and incentives. This mechanism includes at least two roles: the ‘city as a match-maker’ and the ‘city as a communicator’.

Yuliya Voytenko Palgan together with Urban Sharing researchers Oksana Mont and Lucie Zvolska participated in the launch of the Handbook of the Sharing Economy, which took place in London, UK, on 25th of October 2019.

Municipalities can also govern sharing economy organisations by providing or withholding practical, material and infrastructural means. The mechanism of providing includes at least four roles: the ‘city as an owner’, the ‘city as a host’, the ‘city as an investor’ and the ‘city as a data provider’. This short film offers examples on how municipalities of Amsterdam, Berlin, Gothenburg, London and Malmö govern the sharing economy through provision.

Municipalities may engage with the sharing economy through the ‘self-governing mechanism’. Self-governing refers to the capacity of municipalities to govern their own activities. There are at least three roles to exemplify this mechanism: the city as a consumer, the city as a sharer and the city as a data user. This short film provides examples on how municipalities of Amsterdam, Gothenburg, London, Malmö and San Francisco self-govern the sharing economy.

On 10-11 October 2019, Sharing Cities Sweden organized a Sharing Cities Summit in Lund and Malmö with an exhibition on exploring the role of sharing cities in advancing the sustainable development goals. Over 175 participants registered and attended the event.

In many countries, city governments choose to regulate sharing economy initiatives. In the ‘regulator role’, municipalities use regulatory tools like laws, taxes, bans and policies to govern the establishment and operation of sharing organisations. Cities may use these tools both to constrain the sharing economy, or to help it grow. This short film provides examples on how municipalities of Amsterdam, Berlin, Gothenburg, London, Malmö and San Francisco regulate the sharing economy.

With increasing urbanization, cities now face numerous sustainability challenges: climate change, pollution, waste generation, resource use, social segregation, unemployment and poverty. To address these challenges many city governments work with a variety of different approaches, one of which is ‘the sharing economy’. But how do city governments engage with the sharing economy? Which governance mechanisms do they employ and which roles do they play? This is a series of five short films exploring governance roles through which municipalities engage with and shape the sharing economy in Amsterdam, Berlin, Gothenburg, London, Malmö and San Francisco.

Yuliya Voytenko Palgan presented her research done in collaboration with Simo Sulkakoski and Oksana Mont at the 6th International Workshop on the Sharing Economy, which took place on June 28-29 in Utrecht, the Netherlands. She spoke about the Role of City Governments in the Sharing Economy. The abstract of her presentation can he found below. This research is also summarised in a new video series, which will be released each week until the Sharing Cities Summit on 10-11 October in Lund and Malmö.

An evaluations workshop for Sharing Cities Sweden was organised in Gothenburg on 28 August 2019. The purpose of the event was to revisit the evaluations planning at the start of the Sharing Cities Sweden, discuss progress on evaluations and lessons learned so far as well as present and discuss the development of evaluations summaries to draw out key findings from evaluations.

Sharing Cities Sweden is participating in the International Workshop on the Sharing Economy on 28-29 June 2019 through presentations and participation by Tove Lund, Charlie Gullström and Yuliya Voytenko. The event is a meeting place for researchers and practitioners working with the sharing economy in Europe and around the world.

For three weeks in May 2019 a group of engineering students from the University of Virginia collaborated with Lund University. The purpose of the collaboration was to work with Malmö Stad and Godsinlösen on improving their sharing solutions. The work focused on Smarta Kartan in Malmö Stad and the future car pool in Sege Park.

In April 2019, Sharing Cities Sweden published a synthesis report entitled Sharing Cities: Exploring the Emerging Landscape of the Sharing Economy in Cities. It captures the lessons learned and ambitious goals of the test-beds in Stockholm, Malmö, Umeå and Göteborg. The document contains articles on the journeys of the test-beds, a discussion of designing test-beds as urban living labs, insights into governing sharing cities, and an overview of strategic thinking on sharing cities.

In this podcast, launched in May 2019, there is a discussion on the sharing economy from a broad perspective, before elaborating on business models in the sharing economy, as well as discussing the possibilities and problems that come with sharing schemes

Collaboration between the Göteborg test-bed and Malmö test-bed on Smarta Kartan is underway. Smarta Kartan in Göteborg aims to promote access rather than ownership to people and visitors to the city. It highlights current and up-coming activities and networks throughout the city on the sharing economy. The City of Malmö is launching a Smarta Kartan on January 2019 to map sharing economy initiatives in the city.