During the Sharing Cities Summit 2018 global cities such as Amsterdam, Barcelona, Lisbon, Madrid, Montreal, New York, Paris, São Paulo, Seoul, Singapore, Stockholm and Vienna have agreed on a Declaration of Principles and Commitments of the Sharing Cities
Barcelona. An action plan aims to establish a Barcelona-based office where cities can share common information, strategies and a negotiation framework.
The Declaration of 13 November 2018 integrates different viewpoints of cities on the platform economy and updates and expands upon the set of 7 principles established during the New York meeting in 2017. It incorporates three new principles: one on the differentiation between platform models, depending on the impact they produce; a second one on the defense of the sovereignty of cities regarding big digital platforms; and the third principle regarding public support policies for the collaborative economy that have a positive impact.
Different global cities have different sensitivities and priorities, but all want to safeguard respect for local regulations and legality, protect the rights of the citizens using the platforms, and stimulate innovation. Cities ideally would like to reach a new “contract” in which economic activity, users’ rights and the right to live in cities become compatible.
The Sharing Cities Summit is part of Smart City Expo World Congress 2018 and dedicates a specific area to new economic models of the collaborative economy that represent an excellent opportunity to create a more inclusive, participatory and diverse urban economy. Recent research studies have developed tools to differentiate between different models of digital platforms and identify the broader impact they have on cities. This new economy can be aligned with the interests of the city.
Barcelona is a worldwide reference in socially responsible platform economy models. Som Mobilitat, Katuma, Som Energia, Smart IB, Moodle, Wikiloc, Wikipedia, and Mensakas are significant examples of these socially responsible platforms that are aligned with cities’ general interest. They are active, respectively, in the field of shared electrical mobility, the distribution of organic food, renewable energy, labor, free software, open data, and food delivery. Their economic model, which combines participatory governance and social and ecological responsibility with local cohesion, public knowledge, and open technologies, represents a different paradigm for understanding the economy.
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