The State and Prospects of Food Sharing in Vladivostok

Abstract

This article focuses on food-sharing in Vladivostok (the capital of the Far East of the Russian Federation)—a sub-field of the “sharing economy”, i.e., a practice in which people and organizations exchange products for free. It reviews recent trends in “shared consumption” and research approaches to the food-sharing industry and the evolution of food-sharing models. We  argue that food-sharing as a form of collective decision-making focusing on the creation of a  “public good” is explained by the behaviorist approach to the rational-choice-theory of  collective action, confirmed with empirical data. The article also presents the results of a field study conducted in the winter-spring of 2021, involving qualitative and quantitative data which revealed the impact of modern communication technologies on the promotion and development of food-sharing in Vladivostok. We  find all the most common forms of food-sharing and basic technologies of promotion, although the movement is still not popular. We conclude that food-sharing in Vladivostok is perceived not as a “public good” but as a form of charity, which potentially explains why the common technologies for promoting and popularizing the food-sharing movement are inefficient. We also discuss the limitations of our study and map promising directions for future research.