Collaborative consumption: opportunities for social innovation
Isabelle Dabadie, Assistant Professor of Marketing at University of Paris II Panthéon-Assas
Quello Center Roundtable (Room 405), April 2, 2019, 1 - 2 PM
Abstract: Collaborative consumption refers to a highly varied range of practices that challenge the primacy of individual ownership. Spanning a wide range of activities and variously referred to the gig-economy (e.g., Task Rabbit), the “sharing economy” (e.g., Uber, Lyft, AirBnb), and the gift economy (e.g., couchsurfing), and others, collaborative consumption is an innovative mode of organizing production and exchange. While this rapidly growing phenomenon has been the subject of many studies, few researchers have focused on its cultural dimension. Isabelle will discuss her research, which, through a socio-anthropological approach and a multi-sited ethnography, reveals the emergence of an ethic based on new representations of ownership, more open and inclusive. The talk will explore opportunities for societal innovation, which can be derived from a better understanding of the expectations of consumers, attentive to the challenges of a world with finite resources, who subscribe to this worldview.
Bio: Isabelle Dabadie (B.S. in Business, M.A. in Telecommunications at MSU, PhD in Marketing at University of Rennes 1) is an Assistant Professor of Marketing at University of Paris II Panthéon-Assas. Isabelle studies consumer culture and new consumption behaviors, in particular in the field of collaborative consumption.