Capitalism's new old shoes

Since the rise of modern consumerism, people have defined themselves in terms of property. The rhetoric of ‘I am what I own’, deeply embedded in the roots of capitalism, fostered individualization through consumption. 

The unfulfilled promises of consumerism, the fulfilment of all our needs, have made mass consumption a self-defeating practice, leading to excesses and waste beyond imagination. The craze of the consumer society could not be better represented than by the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, one of the world’s biggest landfills, located where barely anyone can find it. 

However, the impact of the 2008 economic crisis on the daily lives of the majority, and on many small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) through austerity measures and limited lending and investment opportunities has triggered a growth in what has been coined ‘collaborative consumption’. Born in the mid-2000s, the term refers to a socio-economic system built around the sharing of human and physical resources, whether material products, services or skills. 

Surrounded by terms such as ‘social capital’, ‘global village’ or ‘shared economy’, collaborative consumption is a new way of doing things. Share, swap, barter. Examples of collaborative consumption such as Blablacar, a car sharing platform, are increasingly questioning the common way of doing things: why would I pay for a product I only want the service of?

Looking more closely at collaborative consumption as a societal phenomenon, it may appear as old as humanity. The main elements of collaborative consumption have existed in most societies for millennia; lending something to a neighbour, selling unwanted goods at local markets or sharing skills in community centres. 

What is new and revolutionary about the system then? First of all, people are becoming increasingly aware of it. The growing awareness of community momentum, facilitated by the previously unimaginable platforms presented by technology and the internet, has allowed collaborative consumption to flourish, to get a name, to become a real alternative to top-down, individual consumerism. 

Networks have also expanded radically, with the whole world becoming one network society. Your ‘collaborative consumption’ pool is not limited to your neighbourhood, not even to your town. It is a global in scope, while remaining personal in treatment. Secondly, cost-saving is no longer the single motivation behind it. People want to define themselves along new lines. I am more than what I own and produce. I am also the interactions that I have with my surroundings, the impact that I have in my community and so on. 

The best thing about collaborative consumption is that doing the ‘right thing’ is becoming increasingly attractive. The sharing economy empowers consumers and addresses worrying environmental issues, as less waste is produced through sharing and swapping. We are reinventing the way we live in ways that we could have not imagined a decade ago.

Is collaborative consumption all good news then? Not exactly. There is a risk that the opportunities brought about by collaborative consumption, mainly consumer empowerment through the creation of their own identity, are co-opted by the beneficiaries of current consumerism and become a flawed version of what could have been a true reinvention of the capitalist system. Big companies like Nike are increasingly endorsing the ideas of collaborative consumption. Nike+ connects runners from different places and allows them to share their routes and comment on them. Although this initiative is praiseworthy, and there is nothing inherently malicious about a big company like Nike being behind it, consumers should be careful. 

Collaborative consumption offers an opportunity too great to miss, and risks becoming a mere ‘nice’ addition to the hyperconsumerist structure that is alive and well. Collaborative consumption should be recognised as a system in its own right, because, as thousands of small entrepreneurs are showing all around the globe, an alternative approach to unsustainable capitalism is feasible right now.

Further reading: What's mine is yours: the rise of Collaborative Consumption.

Originally published in The Columnist (http://www.columnistmagazine.co.uk/post/106507146225/capitalisms-new-old-shoes)