“Thus, the great economic law is this: services are exchanged for services. /…/ it is trivial, very commonplace; it is nonetheless, the beginning, the middle, and the end of economic science.” (Frédéric Bastiat 1848)
In what is called collaborative consumption, The Sharing Economy or the Peer Economy is a social-economic ecosystem built around the sharing of human and physical resources: it includes the shared creation, production, distribution, trade and consumption of goods and services by different people and organisations. In simpler words owners rent out something they are not using, such as a car, house or bicycle to a stranger using these peer-to-peer services. The system typically has a rating or review system so people on both sides of the transaction can trust the other. With the popularity of these services, many people don’t need to buy when they can rent from others.
Inside this huge and raising system we can find many different, popular or not, international or more local examples, but the ones I’m more passionately in love with are the SIMPLEST one, the one involving people’s CREATIVITY and based on real and direct COMMUNICATION CHANNELS.
Pumpipumpe from Meteor Collectif – a swiss designers-collective – is committed to actively managing consumer goods and instigating more social interaction in the neighborhood. The borrowing and lending of things that you rarely need (drill, saw, lawnmower, grill, iron and so on) should be simplified and promoted. This does not happen on the Internet, but with small stickers on the letterbox, that neighbors and local residents walk past every day. This way it is possible to understand “hey, if you are in need, here you can ring the bell for help!!”; that allows neighbors to directly contact each other to borrow tools or kitchen appliances, allowing you to get to know each other better and to buy fewer devices.
Pumpipumpe – the name comes from the pump for bike, that has been the first tool the designer imagined to share – eventually became a real project that aims to create micro-communities devoted to sharing and, consequently, to save money (“if my neighbor has it and the adhesive proves he is available to share it, why should I buy a new one? “) and sociality: if I stick the symbols of games, books or newspapers on my mailbox, it is clear that I’m willing to share a piece of my life with people I’m landing my tools or proprieties”.
