Emergent relational structures at a "sharing economy" festival

International audienceHow do participants to an event engage with others ? This paper examines the emergent relational structure at a "sharing economy" festival, the 2016 OuiShare Fest. A multi-level network analysis design explores the linkages between participation patterns of the "elite" (speakers) and other participants, to unveil the social processes through which status hierarchies emerge and actors manage ensuing tensions. Newly developed specifications for exponential random graph models reveal a tension between cooperation (among actors with shared thematic interests) and competition for audience, whereby conformism and differential use of reciprocity in attendance relationships generate an informal pecking order

Marketing Mutuality: Boundary Spanning Approaches to Marketing Strategy

This dissertation, arranged in three essays, is grounded firmly in the crossroads of sociology and marketing. Theories of the former inform phenomena of the latter. In particular, the sociological theory of the gift and the rich tradition of anti-utilitarian social science inform contemporary debate regarding the rise of the sharing economy and its much-heralded potential to alter the landscape of the market. Through an ethnography of brand and retail service settings in the particular context of American craft beer festivals, the concept of mutuality is used to provide a line of demarcation between effective and ineffective forms of the sharing economy. The first essay is a conceptual treatment of the theory of the gift and its applicability to modern marketing strategy. The second essay delves into the aforementioned ethnographic data to derive insights for managers and theoreticians on the benefits of effective participation in the sharing economy. The third essay provides a practical take on the abstract and at times esoteric concepts underlying the theory to bolster the utility of the findings for practitioners. Throughout the essay, the efficacy of mutuality and gift theory for resolving tensions and simplifying conundrums in the relevant literature is discussed in detail

Ethnographies of Collaborative Economies across Europe

“Sharing economy” and “collaborative economy” refer to a proliferation of initiatives, business models, digital platforms and forms of work that characterise contemporary life: from community-led initiatives and activist campaigns, to the impact of global sharing platforms in contexts such as network hospitality, transportation, etc. Sharing the common lens of ethnographic methods, this book presents in-depth examinations of collaborative economy phenomena. The book combines qualitative research and ethnographic methodology with a range of different collaborative economy case studies and topics across Europe. It uniquely offers a truly interdisciplinary approach. It emerges from a unique, long-term, multinational, cross-European collaboration between researchers from various disciplines (e.g., sociology, anthropology, geography, business studies, law, computing, information systems), career stages, and epistemological backgrounds, brought together by a shared research interest in the collaborative economy. This book is a further contribution to the in-depth qualitative understanding of the complexities of the collaborative economy phenomenon. These rich accounts contribute to the painting of a complex landscape that spans several countries and regions, and diverse political, cultural, and organisational backdrops. This book also offers important reflections on the role of ethnographic researchers, and on their stance and outlook, that are of paramount interest across the disciplines involved in collaborative economy research

Ethnographies of Collaborative Economies across Europe

“Sharing economy” and “collaborative economy” refer to a proliferation of initiatives, business models, digital platforms and forms of work that characterise contemporary life: from community-led initiatives and activist campaigns, to the impact of global sharing platforms in contexts such as network hospitality, transportation, etc. Sharing the common lens of ethnographic methods, this book presents in-depth examinations of collaborative economy phenomena. The book combines qualitative research and ethnographic methodology with a range of different collaborative economy case studies and topics across Europe. It uniquely offers a truly interdisciplinary approach. It emerges from a unique, long-term, multinational, cross-European collaboration between researchers from various disciplines (e.g., sociology, anthropology, geography, business studies, law, computing, information systems), career stages, and epistemological backgrounds, brought together by a shared research interest in the collaborative economy. This book is a further contribution to the in-depth qualitative understanding of the complexities of the collaborative economy phenomenon. These rich accounts contribute to the painting of a complex landscape that spans several countries and regions, and diverse political, cultural, and organisational backdrops. This book also offers important reflections on the role of ethnographic researchers, and on their stance and outlook, that are of paramount interest across the disciplines involved in collaborative economy research

SUSTAINABLE TOURISM AND VALUE CO-CRATION: CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR RURAL AREAS

La co-creazione di valore in ottica di sviluppo turistico di una destinazione \ue8 oggi un hot topic della ricerca scientifica sul destination management. L\u2019obiettivo del presente lavoro \ue8, da un lato, quello di fornire a studiosi ed operatori di settore alcuni spunti critici di riflessione sulle relazioni, le interazioni tra stakeholder e la gestione delle risorse del territorio in un\u2019ottica di sviluppo turistico; dall\u2019altro lato \ue8 quello di mostrare il ruolo, in tale contesto, che la nascita di modelli innovativi di agribusiness basati su un approccio culturale e sul supporto delle nuove tecnologie possono giocare, in particolare nelle aree rurali delle Marche. Al fine di comprendere le dinamiche, le idee e le spinte motivazionali dei soggetti coinvolti nel processo di ricerca, si \ue8 scelto di optare per un approccio qualitativo, nel quale i metodi privilegiati sono stati il case study e l\u2019etnografia. Sono stati quindi analizzati dialoghi, interazioni, materiale informativo di vario genere, documenti ufficiali, field notes ed interviste semi-strutturate con soggetti chiave. La ricerca mette in evidenza come un cambio di paradigma culturale sia necessario per apportare reale innovazione e sviluppo sul territorio, sia in termini di relazioni ed interazioni tra stakeholder, sia in termini di gestione delle risorse. Questo cambiamento pu\uf2 favorire inoltre l\u2019affermazione di modelli di agribusiness innovativi, che in parte stanno gi\ue0 iniziando a diffondersi, che rispondono a nuovi principi economici ed istanze sociali e culturali diverse rispetto al passato. Una successiva ricerca quantitativa potrebbe essere utile per una generalizzazione delle evidenze emerse dal presente lavoro e misurare l\u2019effettiva ampiezza e diffusione dei vari argomenti qui descritti e discussi. La presente indagine contribuisce in particolare a sottolineare il valore di un approccio culturale e creativo anche in ambiti apparentemente distanti e guidati da logiche diverse

Community Self-Organisation from a Social-Ecological Perspective: ‘Burlang Yatra’ and Revival of Millets in Odisha (India)

In this paper, I focus on the revival of an Indigenous community seed festival known locally as Burlang Yatra (‘Indigenous Biodiversity Festival’) in the district of Kandhamal in Odisha (India). This annual event brings together millet farmers to share knowledge and practices, including exchange of Indigenous heirloom seeds. Such community seed festivals remain largely underappreciated (and underexplored). Investigating Burlang Yatra through a social-ecological lens allowed for a greater understanding of its capacity to build and strengthen relationships, adaptation, and responsibility, three key principles that together link the social and the ecological in a dynamic sense. These principles, driven by intergenerational participation and interaction as well as social learning, can be seen as fostering ‘social-ecological memory’ of millet-based biodiverse farming. The festival’s persistence and revival illustrate a form of grassroots self-organising that draws on values of an Indigenous knowledge system. Within a restorative context, it has the capacity to repair and restore cultural and ecological relationships that the community has with their own foods and practices. This paper offers a new understanding of community self-organising from a social-ecological perspective and particularly in a marginalised context as supporting the revitalisation of Indigenous food systems

City innovation as resonance: : the case of outdoor offices and conferences in the open air museum

This paper explores an innovation case within a “smart” Swedish mid-sized city that works extensively with digitalization.Over a long period in time, city populations and city tourism have increased, while more urgentchallenges connected to sustainability have emerged along with health-related problems. In parallel the already established and ongoing digitalization of society was fortified in the pandemic period, something that may have changed the tourism industry. Today, manyprofessional meetings happen both on- and offline.One challenge for public officials who manage urban space, is a societal expectation to maximize and improve tax payers ́ life quality on limited budgets and resources that are commonly owned.This is one of the reasons to why contemporary urban planners and city tourism development organizations need to find new solutions in response to problems related to local and global change. I will focus on norm- changes related to digital nomadism (Makimoto & Manners, 1997) and in connection with a movement for outdoor office work (www. outdoorofficeday.nl,Petersson et al., 2021). The city culture department is testing to offer outdoor offices and meetings in an urban public open air museum, a place that is used for leisure and for pedagogicpurposes.These new offerings can be conceptualized as innovative value propositions (Corvellec & Hultman, 2014) because new values, for instance rich nature experiences or a feeling of doingthe right thing, are made available for tourism consumers. These proposed services can be understood as a re-negotiation of socio-cultural values, where the public institution re-frames space in response to external change.In sociologist Hartmut Rosas (2019) words, this constitutes a form of an ongoing dialogue withthe world, in resonance. Based on eight qualitative interviews with local managers, participant observations, online communication and documents, I explore innovation from this sociologicalperspective.The aim of this research project is to understand tourism innovation discursive practices in public management, as responses to local and global change. Three research questions guide the study; How are outdoor offices and conferences constructed as value propositions for potential visitors? To which problems/risks do these value propositions respond? With what terms are outdoor offices constructed as answers to problems?So far, it was found that some of the strategic actions taken by the project leader was to launchthe outdoor office through a local innovation program, and to frequently work with professionalsocial media platforms.ReferencesCorvellec, & Hultman. (2014). Managing the politics of value propositions. MarketingTheory, 1470593114523445.Makimoto, T., & Manners, D. (1997). Digital nomad: Wiley.Petersson, T., C., Lisberg, J., E., Stenfors, C., Bodin, D., C., Hoff, E., Mårtensson, F., & Toivanen, S. (2021). Outdoor Office Work – AnInteractive Research Project Showingthe Way Out. Frontiers in Psychology, 12. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.636091 Rosa, H. (2019). Resonance : a sociology of the relationship to the world: Polity Press.https://www.outdoorofficeday.n

Commodification of recreational hunting in Sweden : hunting tourism experiences as ‘peculiar goods’

The paper is based on a study of hunting tourism enterprising in Sweden. The study examines how hunting tourism businesses in Sweden navigate in a complex social, economic and moral environment. The aim of the present paper is to identify how tensions between a market- oriented value sphere and a value sphere based on friendship- and community reciprocity are played out in hunting tourism entrepreneurship. In particular, the study focuses on the ambiguous character of the hunting experience product and the different narratives and discourses framing what is considered, by the actors themselves, to be a ‘good’ hunting tourism experience