The Korea Local Administration Review

Recently, the cooperative sharing economy 2.0 era is expected to begin, in which social and environmental values ​​are more important than economic benefits as well as citizens take a leading role in the expansion of sharing activities. Many cities already have been interested in developing various policies to realize the sharing economy and sharing cities. Since the city government’s policy direction and detailed strategy will inevitably have a large influence on the facilitation of the sharing economy and the realization of the sharing city, it becomes important to consider about the policy strategies and the role of the city government. Therefore, this study focuses on analyzing the role of the city government and the public governance strategy that can be constructed for the public sharing economy policy and the realization of sharing city. Since the declaration of a ‘sharing city Seoul’ in 2012, Seoul’s sharing city policy has unfolded in three periods: introduction, growth and expansion, and confusion. This study analyzes the characteristics and limitations of each period in terms of governance strategy and the role of city government.
The study finds that sharing economy governance strategy has been changed from regulating and providing(introduction period) → enabling and collaborating(growth and expansion period) to transforming and passive promoting(confusion period). Along with this, the role of city government has been changed from regulator, information provider, resource owner(introduction period) → matchmaker, communicator, partner(growth and expansion period) to transformer, passive facilitator(confusion period). Based on this research finding, this study provides several policy recommendations including recognition about urban commons with detailed policy strategy, facilitation of public sphere for civic oriented discussions and empowerment, wide and inclusive collaborative governance system, and the role of city government as a collaborative partner.