Skip to main content

Networked Cultures in the Collaborative Economy

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Collaborative Economy and Tourism

Part of the book series: Tourism on the Verge ((TV))

Abstract

This chapter charts diverse approaches to conceptualising the cultures of connection characterising the collaborative economy. To decode the “we-conomy”, we revisit classic notions of coexistence, collaboration and bonding in communities. Informed by a multidisciplinary review (touching upon human ecology, sociology, anthropology and cultural theory), the chapter identifies distinct theoretical frameworks to describe the constitution of communities and discusses their relevance to the collaborative economy. These frameworks explain the drivers of communitarian behaviour and resource circulation, and together open up for multidimensional interpretations of social exchange in the collaborative economy. The chapter concludes with a critical reflection on the challenges of understanding the collaborative economy in tourism, particularly when discourses are dominated by a communitarian logic that overshadows the presence of other, and more pervasive, capitalist logics.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 149.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 199.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 199.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Airbnb. (2015). Community compact. Retrieved from https://www.airbnbaction.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Airbnb-Community-Compact.pdf

  • Arnould, E. J., & Rose, A. S. (2015). Mutuality: Critique and substitute for Belk’s “sharing”. Marketing Theory, 1–25.

    Google Scholar 

  • Arnould, E. J., & Thompson, C. J. (2005). Consumer Culture Theory (CCT): Twenty years of research. Journal of Consumer Research, 31(4), 868–882.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Atkin, D. (2004). The culting of brands: Turn your customers into true believers. New York: Portfolio (Penguin Group).

    Google Scholar 

  • Baudrillard, J. (1994). Simulacra and simulation. Michigan: University of Michigan Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bauman, Z. (2003). Liquid love: On the frailty of human bonds. Cambridge: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Belk, R. (1988). Possessions and the extended self. Journal of Consumer Studies, 15, 139–168.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Belk, R. (2007). Why not share rather than own? The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 611(1), 126–140.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Belk, R. W. (2013). Extended self in a digital world. Journal of Consumer Research, 40, 477–500.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Belk, R. (2014). You are what you can access: Sharing and collaborative consumption online. Journal of Business Research, 67(8), 1595–1600.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Benkler, Y. (2004). Sharing nicely: On shareable goods and the emergence of sharing as a modality of economic production. The Yale Law Journal, 114, 237–358.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Botsman, R. (2010). The case for collaborative consumption. TED-talk, transcript. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/rachel_botsman_the_case_for_collaborative_consumption/transcript

  • Botsman, R. (2014). Sharing is not just for startups. Harvard Business Review, 92(3), 23–26.

    Google Scholar 

  • Botsman, R., & Rogers, R. (2011). What’s mine is yours: How collaborative consumption is changing the way we live. London: Collins.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cova, B., Kozinets, R. V., & Shankar, A. (2007). Tribes, Inc.: The new world of tribalism. In B. Cova, R. V. Kozinets, & A. Shankar (Eds.), Consumer tribes. Oxford, UK: Butterworth-Heinemann.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dredge, D., & Gyimóthy, S. (2015). Collaborative economy and tourism: Critical perspectives, questionable claims and silenced voices. Tourism Recreation Research, 40(3), 286–302. doi:10.1080/02508281.2015.1086076.

  • Dredge, D., Gyimóthy, S., Birkbak, A., Jensen, T. E., & Madsen, A. K. (2016). The impact of regulatory approaches targeting collaborative economy in the tourism accommodation sector: Barcelona, Berlin, Amsterdam and Paris (Impulse Paper No. 9). Brussels: European Commission.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dunbar, R. I. M. (1992). Neocortex size as a constraint on group size in primates. Journal of Human Evolution, 22, 469–482.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eatwith. (2014). EatWith Coreen in San Francisco. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KaAcYjWUZPk

  • Felson, M., & Spaeth, J. L. (1978). Community structure and collaborative consumption: A routine activity approach. American Behavioral Scientist, 21(4), 614–624. doi:10.1177/000276427802100411.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gansky, L. (2010). The mesh: Why the future of business is sharing. New York: Penguin Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Germann Molz, J. (2013). Social networking technologies and the moral economy of alternative tourism: The case of couchsurfing.org. Annals of Tourism Research, 43, 210–230.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gibson-Graham, J. K. (2006). A postcapitalist politics. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gold, L. (2004). The sharing economy: Solidarity networks transforming globalization. Burlington, VT: Ashgate.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gonçalves, B., Perra, N., & Vespignani, A. (2011). Modeling users’ activity on twitter networks: Validation of Dunbar’s number. PLoS ONE, 6(8), e22656. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0022656.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Granovetter, M. (1985). Economic action and social structure: The problem of embeddedness. The American Journal of Sociology, 91(3), 487.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hawley, A. (1950). Human ecology: A theory of community structure. New York: Ronald Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • John, N. A. (2013). The social logics of sharing. The Communication Review, 16(3), 113–131.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kennedy, J. (2015). Conceptual boundaries of sharing. Information Communication and Society, 19(4), 461–474.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lessig, L. (2008). Remix: Making art and commerce thrive in the hybrid economy. New York: Penguin.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • M.A.U.S.S. (1996). L’Obligation de Donner: la De’couverte Sociologique Capitale de Marcel Mauss. Paris: La Découverte/M.A.U.S.S.

    Google Scholar 

  • Maffesoli, M. (1996). The time of the tribes. London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mauss, M. (1990). The gift: Forms and functions of exchange in archaic societies. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Millard, D. (2016). The sharing economy is not your friend. Retrieved from http://www.vice.com/read/the-case-against-airbnb-and-uber

  • Otnes, C., & Beltramini, R. F. (1996). Gift giving: A research anthology. Bowling Green: Popular Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Polányi, K. (1968). The economy as instituted process. In E. LeClair & H. Schneider (Eds.), Economic anthropology (pp. 126–145). New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rifkin, J. (2000). The age of access: The new culture of hypercapitalism, where all of life is a paid-for experience. New York: Putman.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rifkin, J. (2015). The zero marginal cost society: The internet of things, the collaborative commons, and the eclipse of capitalism. New York: Palgrave MacMillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Russo, A. P., & Richards, G. (2016). Reinventing the local in tourism producing, consuming and negotiating place. Bristol: Channel View Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sahlins, M. (1972). Stone age economics. Chicago: Aldine Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Scott, J. C. (1976). The moral economy of the peasant. New Heaven: Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Slee, T. (2015). What’s yours is mine: Against the sharing economy. New York: OR Book.

    Google Scholar 

  • Slee, T. (2016). What is yours is mine: The greed behind the new sharing economy. Retrieved from http://www.afr.com/leadership/entrepreneur/whats-yours-is-mine-the-greed-behind-the-new-sharing-economy-20160525-gp3yfo#ixzz4K30OflpR

  • Sleeboom-Faulkner, M. (2014). The twenty-first-century gift and the cocirculation of things. Anthropological Forum: A Journal of Social Anthropology and Comparative Sociology, 24(4), 323–337.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smith, A. (1904/1776). An inquiry into the nature and causes of the wealth of nations (5th ed.). London: Methuen. Retrieved from http://www.econlib.org/library/Smith/smWN13.html#B.IV. Ch. 2.

  • Sparks, K. (2015). The sharing economy: The production, consumption, and regulation of community in the digital economy. Thesis, Swarthmore College.

    Google Scholar 

  • Strong, C. (n.d.). Airbnb and Hotels: What to do about the sharing economy? Retrieved from https://www.wired.com/insights/2014/11/hotels-sharing-economy/

  • Tanz, J. (2014). How Airbnb and lyft finally got Americans to trust each other. Retrieved from https://www.wired.com/2014/04/trust-in-the-share-economy/

  • Telfer, E. (2000). The philosophy of hospitableness. In C. Lashley & A. Morrison (Eds.), In search of hospitality: Theoretical debates and perspectives. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann.

    Google Scholar 

  • Walsh, B. (2011). 10 ideas that will change the world. Time. Retrieved from http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2059521_2059717_2059710,00.html

  • Zelizer, V. A. (2010). Economic lives: How culture shapes the economy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Szilvia Gyimóthy .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Gyimóthy, S. (2017). Networked Cultures in the Collaborative Economy. In: Dredge, D., Gyimóthy, S. (eds) Collaborative Economy and Tourism . Tourism on the Verge. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51799-5_5

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics