Every day, there is more technology in our cities, and more life in our technologies. The relationship between people and the built environment is increasingly mediated by digital devices and invisible networks of information. While city governments have become adept at governing physical territory, they are still learning how to effectively govern the digital platforms their citizens increasingly rely on. 

Too often opportunities to overcome age-old challenges are missed. Innovative technologies and the new experiences they facilitate have the potential to transform urban living. Most municipal authorities, however, feel under-informed about the potential and dangers of this brave new world. They feel unprepared for the near future, let alone longer-term challenges.

The Sharing Cities Alliance empowers city governments and urban professionals to better govern in the digital age. It respects the character of each city, while championing ideas and solutions that make the world more liveable, equitable and enriching for citizens. Working with big and small cities across the globe, the Alliance is a network that openly collaborates on research, shares data and knowledge, and works together to craft effective policies that future-proof cities.

The journey so far

The Sharing Cities Alliance co-founders Harmen van Sprang and Pieter van de Glind first met in 2013. Harmen was an entrepreneur passionate about the possibilities of sharing and Pieter was an academic researching sustainable development. They were inspired by Seoul’s announcement that it would become the world’s first ‘sharing city’ and started discussing how the sharing economy was set to transform their own city of Amsterdam.

Together, Pieter and Harmen founded the innovation consultancy shareNL and began to lobby the City of Amsterdam to become Europe’s first sharing city. They used their expertise and enthusiasm to bring together influential stakeholders across the city and build a bold vision for the future of the Dutch capital. That vision spread quickly and it wasn’t long before other countries invited Pieter and Harmen to give presentations about how the sharing economy could transform their cities.

In 2015, the City of Amsterdam became the first municipal government to embrace Pieter and Harmen’s vision and declared itself a sharing city. The City of Amsterdam’s Vice Mayor, Kajsa Ollongren, said:

"In recent years, the consumer has become increasingly powerful. The sharing economy is a huge opportunity. It just fits well with Amsterdam. That’s why we want to be known as a sharing city."

Pieter and Harmen worked with the City of Amsterdam to shape their sharing economy action plan. The plan laid out policies to stimulate the sharing economy, while also managing the risks inherent in such emerging technologies. This included consulting on negotiations with Airbnb over how to regulate the platform’s use within the municipality.

Once Amsterdam had declared itself a sharing city, the movement quickly gained momentum and cities from all over the world expressed their interest. Policymakers from locations as far apart as London and Singapore, and Paris and Tokyo got in touch with Pieter and Harmen to ask how they too could become sharing cities. That’s when the idea for a Sharing Cities Alliance was born. 

In May 2016, Pieter and Harmen worked with the City of Amsterdam to organise the world’s first Sharing Cities Summit. They invited representatives from Paris, Copenhagen, Barcelona, New York, and Seoul to attend roundtable discussions in the Dutch capital. From these early discussions, the Sharing Cities Alliance quickly took off.

By the end of 2016, Pieter and Harmen had attracted the attention of the European Commission, and were honoured to host ambitious European policymakers for a groundbreaking session to define the potential of the sharing economy across the continent. This event brought together an ecosystem of startups, enterprises, governments, and knowledge institutions, and inspired the Sharing Cities Alliance’s collaborative model.

Today, the Alliance connects cities across North America, Europe, Africa, and Asia. These urban centers are forging a shared path towards a more sustainable, collaborative, and resilient future; one where the change making individuals within municipal authorities are leading the charge towards carbon neutrality, circularity, and digital sovereignty. Together, these policymakers are marking themselves out as the global thought leaders of tomorrow.

The future of the Alliance

For all of those involved in the Alliance, it is clear that the 2020s are a critical decade. Climate change, rapid urbanisation, automation in the workforce, and the acceleration of technologies are reshaping the world every day. The challenges ahead are so daunting that children all over the world are now fearful for their future, rather than looking ahead with hopes and dreams.

Over the coming years, cities will serve as key battlegrounds to tackle these issues. Places where far-reaching and systemic threats will either be solved or cause major disruption. As the Sharing Cities Alliance continues to grow, it is using its expertise to assist partner cities in solving the social, environmental, and health challenges that define the age we live in.

In addition to consulting for city officials, the Alliance conducts cutting-edge research into the impact of technologies, policymaking, and climate change on the urban environment and city residents. Its work is uniquely focused on the human experience of these challenges, so that they can be understood clearly by everyone. This research is compiled into reports by the Alliance’s award-winning communications team and presented in the form of bespoke events, workshops and keynotes, delivered across the globe.

The future that the Alliance is building is one of greater city-to-city collaboration. One where tech is not above us, but a tool that enables human potential and is accessible to all; where progress means more than innovation, and the best ideas are open to everyone. 

It will take an extraordinary effort to overcome the challenges of the coming decade, but extraordinary things happen when different cultures participate together. The Alliance is a platform of trust where that participation flourishes. Together, we are inviting more people to join us as we aim to build a world where young people are again hopeful about their future.