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Situating BlaBlaCar in the Sharing Economy: An analysis of interpersonal interactions

Amberg, Cyrill (2024) Situating BlaBlaCar in the Sharing Economy: An analysis of interpersonal interactions.

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Abstract:This thesis investigates the interpersonal interactions facilitated by the long-distance ridesharing platform BlaBlaCar. In doing so, I am able to situate it against the background of the criticism voiced against the sharing economy in general. Because this is a big umbrella term and many forms of sharing get lumped together under it, the critique does not adequately apply to all the actors operating in this economic branch. Furthermore, in order to make strangers share with each other, the sharing economy and BlaBlaCar rely on a variety of technologies that should create a trustful environment. I will analyse these technologies and derive a conceptualisation of trust that I call instrumental trust. In order to analyse the alleged community that emerges among the users, I introduce the concept of solidarity to better describe these communities. Similar to trust, I introduce the conceptualisation of instrumental solidarity. Both these cocneptualisations are placed on one end of an axis, with relational trust/solidarity on the other end. This comparison allows to make the characteristics more explicit. I conclude by stating that the instrumental communities facilitated by the technologies employed by the sharing economy actors stand in contradiction to the goal of making meaningful connections among its users.
Item Type:Essay (Master)
Faculty:BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences
Subject:08 philosophy, 70 social sciences in general, 71 sociology, 73 cultural anthropology, 83 economics
Programme:Philosophy of Science, Technology and Society MSc (60024)
Link to this item:https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/101850
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