MOBILE RESEARCH LAB IN TORONTO
In November 2019, Yuliya Voytenko Palgan together with Urban Sharing team went on a mobile research lab to explore the sharing economy in Toronto, Canada. The researchers visited Toronto Tool Library, which is located in the premises of the Center for Social Innovation, Municipal Licensing and Standards division at the City of Toronto, which regulates short-term home rentals and ride-hailing in Toronto, MaRS Solutions Lab and the University of Toronto, which do research on the sharing economy in the city, and went on a study visit to a neighbour Town of Innisfil, which is known for partnering up with Uber to provide public transportation service. Together with the School of Cities at the University of Toronto, Yuliya organised and presented at a workshop “From Challenges to Opportunities: The Role of City Governments and Sustainability in Shaping the Sharing and Platform Economy”. The workshop participants included representatives from academia, knowledge institutes and the City of Toronto, all of whom contributed to an exciting discussion, which is summarised in this blog. The first output from the mobile research lab in Toronto, which is based on the review of academic and grey literature and 20 interviews with sharing economy actors, is the snapshot on Urban Sharing in Toronto.