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All smoke, no fire? Sharing practices and political investment in two Italian cities

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 August 2019

Emanuele Polizzi Open the ORCID record for Emanuele Polizzi [Opens in a new window]  and
Matteo Bassoli Open the ORCID record for Matteo Bassoli [Opens in a new window]
Emanuele Polizzi
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology and Social Research, University of Milan-Bicocca, Via Bicocca degli Arcimboldi 8, 20126Milano, Italy
Matteo Bassoli*
Affiliation:
Department Political Science, Law, and International Studies, University of Padua, Via del Santo 28, 35123Padua, Italy
*
*Corresponding author. Email: matteo.bassoli@unipd.it
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Abstract

The practice of sharing products, services, and other activities among people living in the same city has emerged as one of the most important waves of social innovation in recent years. However, the public and scientific debate have, to date, been mostly rhetoric and rarely relied on empirical evidence. A study of the role played by local institutions in governing the phenomenon is still lacking. This paper addresses the issue of the relationship between local governments and private actors in the sharing economy sector, exploiting the ‘political exchange’ approach. Departing from this governance perspective, it appraises the political exchange – and its outputs in terms of co-operation – underlying the governing structures in two Italian cases between 2014 and 2018. We thus bridge the gap between a theoretical understanding of the sharing economy and empirical cases, providing scholars with a framework to study this phenomenon which highlights the crucial impact of the political investment of public institutions.

Keywords

GovernanceItalylocal governmentparticipationpolicy implementation
Type
Research Article
Information
Italian Political Science Review / Rivista Italiana di Scienza Politica , Volume 50 , Issue 1 , March 2020 , pp. 17 - 32
Copyright
Copyright © Società Italiana di Scienza Politica 2019

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