Citation: Subaşı, Özge, and Berna Kirkulak-Uludag. 2021. “A Socially Engaged Model of Sharing Platforms in Turkey: Design as a Blueprint of Practices and Local Cooperations.” In The Collaborative Economy in Action: European Perspectives, edited by Andrzej Klimczuk, Vida Česnuitytė, and Gabriela Avram, 340–358. Limerick, Ireland: University of Limerick.
A Socially Engaged Model of Sharing Platforms in Turkey: Design as a Blueprint of Practices and Local Cooperations Özge Subaşı Futurewell, Department of Media and Visual Arts, CSSH, Koc University Istanbul, Turkey ozsubasi@ku.edu.tr Berna Kirkulak-Uludag Dokuz Eylul University, Faculty of Business Izmir, Turkey berna.kirkulak@deu.edu.tr
Abstract The growing importance of sharing economy brought criticism with it. Can a new emerging economy be more socially engaged? Given the emergence of local forms of sharing, the current study attempts to collide the authentic socially engaged forms of sharing in the form of platforms, services, and communities from Turkey. Despite intense public attention, there have been very few studies about landscapes of sharing and caring in Turkey. This gap needs to be addressed, as Turkey has great potential. Rapid urbanisation, accompanied by an increasingly young population, provides unique opportunities for scalable new services. In addition to this, there has been remarkable progress in Turkey’s entrepreneurial ecosystem in recent years. To that end, this study carried out a critical review and a thematic categorisation of sharing and caring platforms in Turkey. Based on a social model of sharing, the authors show the ecological, local, and regional values of such platforms. Key findings from the initial thematical mapping indicate regional and cultural potentials. The diversity in the monetary aspects of different platforms and how they relate to the cultural components also show the importance of a variety of assets for defining the value of sharing economy in diverse cultures. Keywords: Sharing, Caring, Local Platforms, Turkey
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