From rural necessity to urban lifestyle. Garden usage as an example for historical forms and current developments of a sharing economy.


Philipp C. Mosmann and Peter Karl Becker show based on the example of urban community gardens, what they contribute to value creation and to what extent these modern forms continue and discontinue the historical development of garden land usage.

The sharing economy has led to the appearance of urban community gardens. Their aim is not only to guarantee their users self-sufficiency in respect to food, but they are also social areas against an economic and ecological background. However, these community gardens only partially represent a continuation of historical concepts of garden use. Property rights and entitlements to disposal have changed to the effect that, while the joint use of land and property in urban community gardens has not replaced the traditional types of (partially) individual use of the gardens, it is becoming increasingly important as a new type. Additionally, it becomes apparent that these types of urban gardens engender a fundamental change, as the principle of subsidiarity is gradually being superseded by the principle of solidarity, thus achieving a political dimension.

Reference:

Mosmann, P. & Becker, P.K. (2017). Von der ruralen Notwendigkeit zum urbanen Lifestyle. Historische Formen und aktuelle Entwicklungen einer Sharing Economy am Beispiel der Gartennutzung, in: ScriptaMercaturae 46, pp. 183-215. 

Link to Journal: https://www.hsozkult.de/journal/id/zeitschriftenausgaben-10813


28.10.17