Sharing Cities (Ebook)

Sharing Cities:
Activating the Urban Commons

edited by Shareable, Digital Download

While cities are now the world’s focal point, they are also beset with the most urgent challenges societies face today including inequality, racism, social isolation, and climate change. Not to mention that billions of city dwellers are often unable to meet their basic needs for food, water, and housing.

Amidst this crisis lies tremendous opportunity for people to address these challenges collectively. Communities, organizations, and local governments are increasingly responding to challenges by turning to a basic human practice: sharing. By sharing their labor, space, goods, and more, people can overcome scarcity by building and maintaining vital common resources. They are showing how sharing leads everyone to have more, together. They are activating the urban commons.

“Sharing Cities: Activating the Urban Commons” showcases over a hundred sharing-related case studies and model policies from more than 80 cities in 35 countries. It witnesses a growing global movement and serves as a practical reference guide for community-based solutions to urgent challenges faced by cities everywhere. This book is a call to action meant to inspire readers, raise awareness, and strengthen the sharing movement worldwide. “Sharing Cities” shows that not only is another world possible — but that much of it is already here.

Advance Praise for ‘Sharing Cities: Activating the Urban Commons’

“Sharing Cities” shows that the answer is us. It lays out a vision, with concrete examples, of how we can ease pressure on the planet, increase access to the things people need, and strengthen our democracy through sharing. Read this book and let’s get started building a better world!” — Annie Leonard, executive director, Greenpeace USA and author of “The Story of Stuff”

“By far the best single guide to the exploding commons revolution: Practical and revolutionary; immediate and far-seeing; a truly indispensable and fast-moving handbook on the change that is building community from the ground-up worldwide.” — Gar Alperovitz, co-founder of The Democracy Collaborative and author of “What Then Must We Do? Straight Talk About the Next American Revolution”