Over the last few years, the “sharing culture” has creatively deconstructed traditional markets and changed the way we travel, commute, consume, interact with other peers. Despite its promises, the so-called sharing economy has also the potential to prompt new forms of discrimination: the architecture choices of online platforms combined with often opaque rating systems powered by algorithms are exacerbating existing biases and creating new forms of inequalities in our society.

The goal of the international workshop is to explore the different dimensions of digital discrimination in the current sharing economy, taking into consideration the discriminatory practices or effects generated by humans as well as by algorithms. The workshop will map out the discriminations existing in the sharing economy, before exploring the harm (or potential benefits) of these forms of discriminations against users (consumers and service providers). Experts will analyse the existing rules and ways to limit the risks and to foster new opportunities of the sharing economy. Stakeholders will then explore new avenues of policy reforms.

Contact : luc.desaunettes@uclouvain.be