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Call for Papers: Special Issue of Journal of Business Ethics

Sharing Economy, Sharing Responsibility? CSR in the Digital Economy

Deadline: December 18, 2017

See here for the full call: http://tinyurl.com/jlru7vx

Guest Editors:    

Michael Etter, Cass Business School – michael.etter@city.ac.uk 

Christian Fieseler, Norwegian Business School – christian.fieseler@bi.no 

Glen Whelan, Copenhagen Business School – gwh.ikl@cbs.dk

Enabled by innovations in information and communication technology, the "sharing economy" has disrupted established industries; led to the emergence of platform organizations (e.g., Uber, AirBnB); and altered such matters as governance, privacy, and work-life (im)balance. Whilst some suggest the sharing economy has the potential to democratize socio-economic relations (Belk, 2010); others suggest it is mutating into some sort of neo-liberal nightmare (Moore & Robinson, 2015). In light of such considerations, we welcome submissions on the following topics and questions, amongst others.

1. The sharing economy raises questions regarding governance and social impact (e.g., Sundararajan, 2016). For example: How may the sharing economy be regulated and any governance gaps be filled? Can the sharing economy help solve public good problems and social issues? What lobbying activities do sharing economy organizations engage in?

2. Various actors participate in legitimation and discursive struggles over the sharing economy, often online (Whelan et al., 2013; Schultz et al., 2013; Etter et al., forthcoming). Such struggles raise questions as to the different communication tactics (Castello, Etter, Nielsen, 2016) and justification strategies (Whelan & Gond, forthcoming) that are employed. For example: What ideological struggles does the sharing economy involve? How do sharing economy organizations manage and communicate CSR? What justification tactics are used in conflicts that relate to the sharing economy?

3. Algorithms, big-data, and techno-ethical considerations (Flyverbom, 2015; Martin & Freeman, 2004; Pasquale, 2015) are central to the sharing economy's functioning. They raise questions for such matters as discrimination, privacy and transparency. For example: Are extant privacy protection mechanisms sufficient to protect user privacy? What are the negative implications of our data being processed by (unknown) algorithms? Can sharing, algorithms and big data help solve social and environmental issues?

4. Working in the sharing economy:  Considerations regarding ethics and employment (Greenwood, 2002) are significantly altered by the new organizational setups and work-experiences (Bucher, Fieseler, & Lutz, 2016; Bucher & Fieseler, 2016) associated with the sharing economy. Some of the questions raised are: What constitutes meaningful labor and identification in the sharing economy? How are potential labor disputes handled and how do workers organize? How inclusive or exclusive is the sharing economy (digital divides)? What are the motives for (non-) participation and (non-) sharing?

SUBMISSION PROCESS AND DEADLINES

Authors are strongly encouraged to refer to the Journal of Business Ethics website for instructions on submitting a paper and for more information about the journal: http://www.springer.com/social+sciences/applied+ethics/journal/10551. Submission to the special issue by December 18, 2017 is required through Editorial Manager at: http://www.editorialmanager.com/busi/. Upon submission, please indicate that your submission is to this Special Issue. Questions about expectations, requirements, the appropriateness of a topic, etc., should be directed to the guest editors.