Discussion Questions:
- What do you think when you hear “sharing economy”?
- What do you regularly share with other people?
- What things do you think are weird to share with strangers?
- How does the sharing economy work?
- What are the main pillars of the sharing economy? (Elicit: trust, access, shared ownership)
- Why has the sharing economy boomed after evolution of mobile internet?
- How can you trust people you share things with?
- Have you ever taken part in the sharing economy? How?
- What was the experience like?
- Why would people share rather than own something? (Cost, wasted resources, value extraction?)
- What benefits do the sharing economy hold for communities / society?
- How is this market regulated for security and security?
- How does sharing play a role in urban waste?
- In normal business transactions the government also extracts value by way of taxes, but with the sharing economy often the same taxes don’t apply; what do you think about this? (e.g. AirBnB hosts don’t pay taxes charged in the hospitality industry)
- What sharing economy initiatives do you know about?
- AirBnB, Uber, Coachsurfing, Taskrabbit, Poshmark…)
- How popular are these (or ideas like these) in your country? Why do you think?
- Which countries / communities would this be most popular? Why?
- Do you think that the sharing economy could have serious consequences for product manufacturers and service providers in the long term? Why / how?
- Do you think that the sharing economy could rival the traditional economy at some point?
- (Referring to the Economist article):
- Why does the journalist say that the sharing economy is not just like a bed and breakfast?
- What are some examples that he mentions (besides renting bedrooms or cars)?
- Do you have underused assets that you could extract more value from?
- Do you think that reviews and comments on a user’s profile is enough of a security check?
- As the journalist mentioned, there is some conflict between the traditional market or authorities and the sharing economy. Do you think that this will restrict the sharing economy?
Vocabulary:
collaboration
boom (economy boom)
value extraction
underused assets
Grammar spotlight:
Have you ever used… (present perfect)
sharing economy is smaller than the traditional market (comparative)
for now the sharing economy has a smaller market share than… (comparative)
Material:
The Economist online had a great article titled Rise of the Sharing Economy that gives a current overview as well as a “peek into the future” as they call it.
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