Some limitations in understanding the collaborative economy in an emancipatory sense

Abstract

How the collaborative economy must be understood? Which methodologically operative as well as substantially informative definition should be employed? By identifying the difficulties in finding out a correct definition of such term, this paper critically analyses the conception that infers to the collaborative economy a certain emancipatory aspiration or capacity. The paper shows that, paradoxically, such a discourse assumes much of the conceptual tools belonging to the stabdard neoclassical economic theory and, therefore, tends to reproduce some of mistakes. The conclusion suggests that, in order to properly define the concept of the collaborative economy, it is required the employment of the political economy as framework of analysis, even more if what it is intended is a fertile definition to foster, not only the discussion in the conceptual realm, but also the actual political and economic emancipatory initiatives.