Presented at the 13th European Sociological Association conference, RN05 & RN09 joint session "Re-thinking market capitalism: the rise of alternative forms of economic exchange", 31 Aug 2017.

1. Juhana Venäläinen
PhD, postdoctoral researcher
University of Eastern Finland
juhana.venalainen@uef.fi
Between exchange and gift-giving?
Economic moralities of self-organisedlong-distanceridesharing
13th European Sociological Association Conference / RN05_RN09_07b_P_JS: JOINT SESSION: Re-thinking Market Capitalism:
The Rise of Alternative Forms of Economic Exchange I / Athens, Greece / 31 August 2017

2. — Part of a Kone Foundation funded project "Rights,
excludability, and the social production of value in the models
of the new economy”
— Sub-study: Ridesharing as an interface to the ”sharing
economy”
— Research topics:
— Social dynamics of the ridesharing groups and the role of technological
platforms in shaping them
— Motivations of the providers and users, and the understandings of the
"economic" characteristics of ridesharing
— The potential tensions with traditional public transport services and
the more business-oriented understandings of the sharing economy

3. — 1. Contextualizing self-organised
long-distance ridesharing in Finland
— 2. Economic moralities of ridesharing,
and the problem of a just price
— 3. Concluding remarks:
Political undertones of ridesharing

4. — In 2010s, long-distance (i.e. city-to-city)
ridesharing in Finland has been mostly
organized through Facebook groups
established and moderated by individual
persons
— Over250 000 members in ca. 160 groups
(c.f. population of 5m in Finland)
— Groups typically named eitherby
destination, origin, area, orcertain route

5. ”Journey starts from Joensuu around six in the morning.
The route goes through Lappeenranta. There is space for
two passengers in the car.”

6. — A systemof co-operationand peer production between strangers
— Provides meansof subsistencewith less dependenceon money
— Upscales and de-personifies traditional practicesof mutualaid
— Contributes toa kind of ”transportcommons” /
mobility “commoning” (see De Angelis 2017)
— The self-organized model contrastswith the commercial mobile-
app based sharing platforms (such as BlaBlaCar) popular in
many Europeancountries

7. What kind of economic moralities
characterise ridesharing as an
institution of sharing?

8. David Graeber (2014): ”On the Moral Grounds of
Economic Relations. A Maussian Approach.”
"I wish to propose three fundamentally
different moral logics lying behind
phenomena that we class together as ’the
gift’. These exist everywhere in different
forms and articulations, so that in any
given situation there are several kinds of
moral reasoning actors could apply. "

9. no reciprocity
unilateral generosity
inequality
HIERARCHY
COMMUNISM
altruistic mutuality
permanent ”indebtness”
economy as conviviality
EXCHANGE
calculative mutuality
temporary transactions
independence
David Graeber (2014): ”On the Moral Grounds of
Economic Relations. A Maussian Approach.”

10. — Research material: Three conversations
(related to polls) about the acceptable
price of a ride from the Finland’s biggest
ridesharing group in 2014–2015
— 387 posts
— Arguments identified and classified in two
iterations (#1: 12 categories, #2: 4
categories)

11. CO-PRODUCTION (DOING TOGETHER), COMMUNALITY, SOCIABILITY, ECOLOGICAL VALUES,
GOOD SPIRIT, CHATTING, TRAVEL COMPANION, SHARING THE LABOUR OF DRIVING
— ”It feels like the nitpickers in this group have lost this certain principle
of communality […] like that you do something together, and then at the
same time, both will get something for themselves, like a good mood, a
little bit of money for gasoline, or nice companion. […] You don't have to
take ridesharers, if the motive is to make them pay for the expenses of
your car.”

12. NOMINAL FEE, "SOMETHING FOR ONE'S PAINS", "PAY WHAT YOU WANT", POSSIBILITY TO PAY
OR NOT TO PAY, NO PROFIT MOTIVE, NO BUSINESS, NO EARNING, NO BILLING OF ACTUAL
EXPENSES, ONE MAY ASK FOR MONEY BUT NOT DEMAND IT
— ”I have always written in my own posts that a ridesharer may decide to
pay or not to pay a sum of his/her choice. Every time someone has paid
something, but my principle is that if someone needs a ride but doesn't
have money, they can still join in.”

13. FIXED PRICE PER KILOMETER, PRICE BASED ON AVG. CONSUMPTION OF FUEL, PRICE BASED
ON MILEAGE ALLOWANCE RELIEF, FIXED PRICE FOR A ROUTE, A "REASONABLE" OR "RIGHT"
PRICE
— "There is a law mandating that one can only share the fuel expenses. I
myself divided the average consumption [of fuel] between passengers
based on how many kilometers they travelled. […]"

14. QUESTION OF FAIR PRICE AS ”EVERYONE’S OWN BUSINESS” OR ”SOMETHING NOT TO BE
DISCUSSED ABOUT”, NEGOTIATION OF THE PRICE AS A MUTUAL CONTRACT, PRICE AS A
NATURAL OUTCOME OF SUPPLY AND DEMAND
— ”I think it gets too complicated if you start to think about the price in
too much detail. Things get messy if soon no one knows how much to
ask or how much to pay for a ride. Just settle it with mutually with the
driver, vice versa, and that’s it.”

15. COMMUNISM
altruistic mutuality
permanent ”indebtness”
economy as conviviality
EXCHANGE
calculative mutuality
temporary transactions
independence

16. COMMUNISM
altruistic mutuality
permanent ”indebtness”
economy as conviviality
EXCHANGE
calculative mutuality
temporary transactions
independence
1. Producing
common
good
2. Minimal
money-
mediatedness
4. Individualized
quasi-market
3. Calculative
fairness
social production of
extra-economic
value as a goal in
itself
money as a nominal
”token” that
expresses trustand
prevents free-riding
pricing based on
allegedly objective
criteria
pricing as a private
affair between the
ridetaker and the
ridegiver

17. — Discussionabout money and the just price of a ride
brings about the political undertone of ridesharing
— Ridesharingis influencedby various (and partly conflicting) forms
of economicreasoning
— The ”communist” moral logics in ridesharingemphasize ”extra-
economic” prioritiesandmotivationssuch as subsistence, care,
mutual aid, distribution of surplus, and conviviality
— In this sense, ridesharingis notonly about tacklingthe obvious
inefficiency of the transportsystembased on private cars, but about
a practical experimentationof trying to rethink,reframe andre-
experience”the economy”

18. Thank you!
juhana.venalainen@uef.fi
http://juhanavenalainen.net

19. — De Angelis, Massimo (2017) Omnia sunt communia. London: Zed Books.
— Finnish Transport Agency (2012) National Transport Survey 2010–2011. Helsinki:
Finnish Transport Agency.
http://www2.liikennevirasto.fi/julkaisut/pdf3/lr_2012_henkiloliikennetutkimus_we
b.pdf
— Graeber, David (2014) On the moral grounds of economic relations: A Maussian
approach. Journal f Classical Sociology 14 (1), 65–77.
— Light, Ann & Miskelly, Clodagh (2015) Sharing Economy vs Sharing Cultures?
Designing for social, economic and environmental good. InteractionDesignand
Architectures 24, 49–62.
— Cover photo: Ant_S95: M30 Traffic light trails (Flickr.com, cc by-nc)