Development of the Practice of Sharing Economy in the Communicative Information Environment of Modern Urban Communities

Abstract

In the last decade, the idea of sharing economy has spread widely in the world, inspiring people with the prospects of rapid and widespread practical realization of the values of the future: social solidarity, effective use of industrial and human resources, overcoming the phenomenon of capitalist alienation in the process of social and industrial production. At the same time, not the most progressive types of practices of the share economy get success in real life. A real alternative to the implementation of the ideas of the sharing economy became so-called “Uberization” as increase in the exploitation of workers instead of selfless participation of citizens in joint activities. At the same time, the development of the information and communication environment and the multiplication of the number of Internet communities naturally entail the growth of social solidarity and the strengthening of “weak” links in a wide variety of communities. The article investigates spontaneously emerging practices of donations and exchanges, which are carried out by users of a wide variety of virtual communities, identifies specific types of sharing economy on different web platforms, and examines the differences in the communication of modern citizens involved in the sharing economy, depending on the cultural software that is installed in a particular virtual community.