LSE Electronic Working Paper # 26 – – – – – - 2 - Sharing , Collaborative Consumption and Web 2 . 0

This paper explores the connection between collaborative consumption and technology, in particular the internet, smartphones and social network sites (SNSs). Based on a content analysis of 63 newspaper articles about collaborative consumption, it is argued that collaborative consumption is constructed as a high-tech phenomenon in three main ways: first, technology is depicted as enabling collaborative consumption; second, technology is said to be driving collaborative consumption, as it is argued that online practices of sharing (on Twitter and Facebook) are encouraging offline practices of sharing; and third, the terminology and metaphors used in talk about collaborative consumption can be seen as deriving from the world of high-tech start-ups. ––––– Media@LSE Electronic Working Paper #26 –––––