Not Only For-Profit, Sharing Solidarity and Promoting Opportunities. A Case Study in Rome

This chapter explores the issues and limitations of sharing economy cases that reproduce social inequalities, focusing on the potential of “sharing in” practices, i.e., sharing based on forms of circular solidarity that produce social capital. The focus is on initiatives targeting low-income populations in resource-limited settings. In particular, food-sharing practices, which proliferated in response to the Covid-19 crisis, are a way of addressing the challenges of hunger and reducing food waste. Some of these initiatives develop from the bottom up, promoting cooperation, trust, and solidarity. In many cases, these practices are characterized by co-management, with end users actively participating in their organization. Digital platforms, in their role as mediators, are essential facilitators of sharing processes. Our study is thus positioned in the body of work using a base of the pyramid (BoP) approach and analyzes a mutual-aid project in Rome aimed at supporting poor people outside of for-profit logic. Our results suggest that projects based on a collaborative ecosystem, a social mission, and the poor’s active involvement in the value production process can reshape the sharing economy’s pathways, directing them toward a more sustainable and inclusive community-centered system.