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Share: What's Mine Is Yours (2010)

by Rachel Botsman(Favorite Author)

4.01 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

4140814543 (ISBN13: 9784140814543)

languge

English

genre

Nonfiction

publisher

Nhk Shuppan/Tsai Fong Books

review 1: The first chapter of this book titled 'Enough is Enough' was very inspirational. It had me questioning my own behaviour and considering changes as well as spouting out random facts and stories about consumerism to anyone that would listen.Unfortunately my enthusiasm wore off as the book continued. I found it a bit repetitive at times although it was scattered with interesting stories which kept my attention. I found the book overly optimistic about collaborative consumption as a movement and reading it four years after it was written nothing seems to have progressed that much compared to how things were then. The other thing I found off putting was that throughout the book the authors no longer came across as encouraging or inspiring as I found them to be the first chapter... more. Instead they talked about this movement as if it were a revolution that had already happened, nevermind the reader. All in all it didn't leave me wanting to make a change as I'd hoped it would.
review 2: 3.5 stars. I applaud Botsman for her optimistic outlook on the rise of collaborative consumption. She is encouraging and positive in her belief that this phenomenon will bring about great socio-economic and environmental changes. However it is hard to gauge how much of this trend is "global" and not just significant within the US. Her examples of the surge in product service systems and sharing networks (zip car, airbnb, etc) are fun and relevant. But certain conclusions drawn in the book are based on wish-washy statistics and pseudo-psychology. Some parts also read too much like a marketing book coining unnecessary jargon. For example I am unsure how I feel about the term "reputation capital". It's an attempt to monetize "trust" which I find oversimplified and slightly absurd. The writing needs to be more concise and the book in general lacks any in depth analysis. Overall still an entertaining read. UPDATE: the recent issue of economist march 09-15th 2013 has a special extensive coverage to the "sharing economy" with a mention of Botsman and her book ( published back in 2010). The article does update the reader on the continuing momentum and mainstream interest in collaborative consumption. However the economist also manages to dispel some of the initial idealism towards the "sharing economy" by highlighting the illusion of democracy in this model. Big companies are creating sharing models of their own as well as making investments in pre-existing rental companies in an attempt to gain and eventually monopolize market share. The economist goes further by outlining the regulatory barriers faced by some of the companies operating in the peer to peer rental business.(it gave examples of insurance policies and regulatory backlash in car and home rental bizes). The feature article can be read in place of the actual book as it is brief, concise and updated. It also bypasses all the jargon, fluffy statistics and repetition here. less

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