Sharing without caring

I examine sharing in the context of gated communities. Sharing among family, friends and neighbours is the oldest form of mutual distribution and involves inclusionary “sharing in”, which tends to build caring interpersonal ties and a sense of community. Public goods sharing involves more exclusionary “sharing out”, and creates only weak ties and a limited sense of community or caring. The same is true of the so-called “sharing economy”. Gated communities lie between these extremes—not fully private nor public. Paradoxically, since they are founded to share amenities with neighbours, such communities are actually exclusionary and uncaring.