We are delighted to announce the global launch of our latest book, “Sharing Cities: Activating the Urban Commons.” The book is a result of a years-long collaboration between our team at Shareable and an amazing cohort of fellows and organizations based around the world. It features more than one hundred case studies and policies that illustrate how cities and residents share resources. The book, which is open-source by design, serves as a practical reference guide for city dwellers, policymakers, and anyone with a passion for creating “Sharing Cities.”
The concept of Sharing Cities stemmed from Shareable’s ShareSF event in 2011. We advanced the discussion further with our 2013 “Policies for Shareable Cities” — the first ever Sharing Cities policy guide, in partnership with the Sustainable Economies Law Center. That year, we also launched the Sharing Cities Network, a grassroots network for community leaders in various cities who were spearheading the sharing movement. Following this work, we launched the Sharing Cities book project in 2016. Over the next two years, our staff, fellows, and various grassroots organizations gathered case studies and policies that show how communities and cities can work together to start and alleviate projects that promote the sharing of resources, knowledge, wealth, time, and so much more.
We hope this book inspires readers to build on the studies and policies mentioned in the book and create their own sharing programs. To help spark ideas and conversations, we will be hosting many events around the world this year. We invite you to join us or host your own event — book club conversations, panel discussions, or community gatherings — to explore the ideas outlined in the book.
“‘Sharing Cities’ shows that the answer is us,” says Annie Leonard, executive director at Greenpeace and author of “The Story of Stuff” project. “It lays out a vision, with concrete examples, of how we can ease pressure on the planet, increase access to the things people need, and strengthen our democracy through sharing.”
In order to stay true to our ethos around sharing and collaboration, we published this book under the Creative Commons CC BY SA 4.0 license. What this means is that you’re free to change, adapt, and build upon the text, photos, and graphics in the book. We realize that the case studies and policies described in the book are by no means comprehensive, and we want to empower people to modify the book to suit the needs of their communities and cities.
