‘I prefer to own what I use’: Exploring the role of emotions in upscaling collaborative consumption through libraries in Norway

Abstract

The generalisation of collaborative consumption as a practice embedded in everyday practices such as cooking, cleaning, repairing, commuting, and exercising can reduce material and resource use, but has not yet achieved its full potential in Western societies. This article contributes to an emerging literature focusing on emotions as an integral part of practices and investigates how they might promote or hamper the scaling up collaborative consumption. The study draws on quantitative and qualitative data to, first, describe the emotions associated with sharing and their relationship with other bundled practices and, second, explore the potential of upscaling collaborative consumption through libraries, institutions with long traditions in organised sharing. Through the case study of sports equipment and a municipal library in Norway, we find that interventions that encourage positive emotions such as excitement and reward and that reduce the need to regulate negative emotions associated with sharing can recruit practitioners to collaborative consumption. Explicit and long-term engagement by libraries in the lending of culturally meaningful equipment such as skis in Norway can potentially reduce the need for regulating the embarrassment and discomfort associated with not owning them.