Spatialisation of disruptions caused by the Sharing Economy. The case study of Lisbon.

Sharing economy platforms, such as Uber and Airbnb, have entered cities in a fast pace and created disruption to several industry sectors. The spatialisation of those phenomena in urban centers is not always easy to be spotted and their reflections on locals’ dynamics and inequalities tend to be left aside when promoting such innovations. Lisbon has been advertised in the last decade as a Smart City and a city that embraces innovations in all phases, due to that it has been seen as the capital for those platforms in Europe. Not only, the complex housing scenario and peculiar legislation that have been done to regulate those innovations make for a unique case study. This thesis aims to evaluate, using literature review and a fieldwork, the impacts that sharing economy has ranging from displacement of locals to labor relationships. The work done consisted in two sections, first a literature review and then a fieldwork on the case study. The review consisted of what is the sharing economy, how cities are perfect for them to thrive and how cities have reacted to those innovations. The fieldwork tried to identify those disruptions in the city of Lisbon using interviews with stakeholders, scholars on the subject and workers for the sharing economy; and a field observation consisted in a qualitative and quantitative approach. Finally, the author will propose his interpretation of what was perceived and evaluate possible regulatory solutions, either by sector or cross-sectors, and evaluate those already applied in the city of Lisbon. The results found that even though some attempts were made to regulate the activity, the side effects of their operations have been often overlooked by authorities.