Performing the sharing economy

The sharing economy converges around activities facilitated through digital platforms that enable peer-to-peer access to goods and services. It constitutes an apparent paradox, framed as both part of the capitalist economy and as an alternative. This duplicity necessitates focusing on the performances of the sharing economy: how it simultaneously constructs diverse economic activities whilst also inviting the deconstruction of ongoing practices of dominance. Such performances hold open the question of what the (sharing) economy is, suspending it as a space for both opportunity and critique. Drawing on participant observation at a sharing economy ‘festival’ and analysis of the vocabularies of online platforms, the paper outlines three performances of sharing through community, access and collaboration. It argues through these performances that the sharing economy is contingent and complexly articulated. It has the potential to both shake up and further entrench ‘business-as-usual’ through the ongoing reconfiguration of a divergent range of (economic) activities. Whilst offering an antidote to the narrative of economy as engendering isolation and separation, the sharing economy simultaneously masks new forms of inequality and polarisations of ownership. Nonetheless, the paper concludes in suggesting that by pointing to wider questions concerning participation in, access to and production of resources, the sharing economy should not be dismissed. Instead, it should serve as prompt to engage with ‘digital’ transformations of economy in the spirit of affirmative critique that might enact the promise of doing economy differently

Adoption and Resistance of Service Innovations by Travelers in the Sharing Economy

abstract: This dissertation examines travelers’ innovation adoption and repurchase behaviors in the sharing economy. The central question is to what extent the tourism industry embraces service innovations in the sharing economy. Predicated upon behavioral reasoning theory, this research makes a contribution to the tourism study and diffusion of innovation literature, by exploring the influence of travelers’ reasonings in the innovation decision process. The dissertation follows a two-study format. The analysis contextualizes reasons for and against adoption, by incorporating appropriate constructs relevant to service innovations in social dining services (Study 1) and ride-sharing services (Study 2). An exploratory mixed methods approach is taken in both studies. The survey data and the semi-structured interviews are used to identify the context-specific reasons for and against adoption. And, a series of statistical analyses are employed to examine how reasonings influence intentions to adopt social dining services (Study 1) and intentions to repurchase ride-sharing services for the next trip (Study 2). The main results suggest that both reasons for and reasons against adoption have countervailing influences in the psychological processing, supporting the validity of the research models. The findings also reveal that different psychological paths in travelers’ adoption and repurchase intentions. In Study 1, the trustworthiness of service providers attenuates the reasons against adoption and enhances the likelihood of adopting social dining services in the pre-adoption stage. In Study 2, attitude strength functions as an additional construct, which mediates travelers’ attitudes and ultimately intentions to repurchase ride-sharing services for the next trip in the post-adoption stage. By developing and testing a framework comprising a set of consumers’ beliefs, reasonings for adoption and resistance, attitudes towards adoption, and behavioral responses to the sharing economy, the insights gleaned from this research allow practical recommendations to be made for service providers, platform providers, and policy makers in the tourism industry.Dissertation/ThesisDoctoral Dissertation Community Resources and Development 201

Collaborative production and the transformation of publishing: The case of Wattpad

This chapter investigates the social reading and writing platform Wattpad as a site of collaborative production and consumption. I consider Wattpad as a community of readers and writers engaging in a process of creative dialogue and collaborative production of a shared commons and also as a transactional marketplace in which these readers and writers engage in the creation and circulation of value and exchange of services. I then go on to examine the various ways in which Wattpad, as both community and marketplace, articulates with the world of traditional publishing and the wider field of commerce: providing a launch pad for fledgling writers, an audience development opportunity for established writers and a marketing service for brands. Having considered these aspects, I argue that Wattpad’s fan community represents an emerging economic force and model within publishing. Furthermore, drawing on the work of Berlant and Arvidsson, I consider the extent to which this community might have the potential to function as a ‘productive consumer public’ and to exercise social and political as well as economic influence

Toward sustainable lifestyles through collaborative consumption platforms: a case study of a community from Montevideo city.

In a world in which market-oriented economies steer human endeavours on a global scale, the urgency for moving towards more sustainable futures has become more than evident. The role design plays as co-producer of everyday life, both in its physical and social construction, demands today designers to lead collective action through visions of sustainable lifestyles (Manzini, 2015; Irwin, 2015). Urban citizens, concerned with the unsustainability of dominant practices have been actively participating in such transitions, bringing changes into the lifestyles of their communities. Described as collaborative organizations, these bottom-up initiatives use social media and act as grassroots organizations (Manzini, 2015). Alternatively, these initiatives also fall under the umbrella notion of the collaborative or sharing economy. However, this notion is not representative of the diversity in those organizations as the phenomenon encompasses diverse endeavours wherein aims, motivations, organizational structures, and consequent societal and environmental impact vary widely from case to case. This research aims to learn, from an empirical viewpoint, how and why citizens interact and engage in these practices, through a case study of a citizen-led initiative from Montevideo, Uruguay. This platform and community propose a solution to the problem of accumulation of disused goods, configuring alternative practices of consuming, using, and disposing of goods. The case is analyzed with literature from collaborative economy studies; relevant concepts from Design for Social Innovation; and several theories brought together by Transition Design, used as a conceptual framework for sustainable lifestyles. The study suggests that on top of various motivations, engagement in community-oriented collaborative platforms can be explained by technological and cultural arrangements that foster a sense of belonging through giving active roles to participants in the community. Therefore, it is argued that these practices represent a step in transitions toward sustainable lifestyles as they engage citizens in self-organization and increase the possibilities of local and endogenous satisfaction of needs, at a global scale (in the sense of ‘cosmopolitan localism’). However, challenges for these platforms are building governance that prevents centralization of power and supporting its technological infrastructure without compromising their non-profit character with financial arrangements. Moreover, an important shortcoming is the reliance on centralized mass production and consumption, as these systems do not propose a distributed alternative to production but only to consumption practices. For that reason, environmental benefits cannot be claimed without further research

Loku: Building an Appetite for Cultural Curiosity

The thesis has two authorsThis thesis investigates how food can play an important role in inciting dialogue between natives and immigrants of Helsinki. A strong desire to learn about people from different cultural backgrounds can trigger dialogue and empathy. Such an attitude can encourage a myriad of social interactions and is referred to as cultural curiosity. The thesis tries to answer the research question - how might we encourage cultural curiosity and create a shared sense of belonging for the people of Helsinki. The study follows a User Centered Design (UCD) approach to build a platform to enhance cross cultural interactions. The study begins by engaging and understanding potential user groups through conversations, interviews and workshops. Next, it analyses existing services where food is used as a driver for initiating cultural curiosity. Learnings from the research and analysis were supported with a literature review on related subjects, to identify the problem/opportunity areas. The knowledge gathered serves as a framework for prototyping and testing the proposed service concept: Loku. The design process culminated in the creation of a digital app which intends to brings people together over complimentary food passions. It taps into existing physical and digital social habits, customizing events to a user’s motivation, needs and wants. It addresses specific opportunities identified during the study, namely 1. Tackling Stereotypes: Loku users are represented by their food interests rather than their ethnicity, which can pique curiosity. 2. Cultivating social habits: Through proactive and customized invitations, Loku can make attending local food events a habit. 3. Bringing multiple stakeholders together: Loku brings people, markets, kitchens and communities onto one platform in unique ways that encourage collaborations and cultural dialogue. This study validates that food can be an effective tool to foster cultural curiosity among our focus group of students and young professionals in Helsinki. Further, this concept has the potential to incorporate the needs of a wider user base. To conclude, Loku supports the creation of a shared and rich culture in Helsinki - one meal at a time

Merging sport and drinking cultures through social media

The sport-alcohol-social media triumvirate presents a significant emerging issue in the fight against alcohol-related harm. This report identifies and explores how alcohol brands are using social media to connect sport’s identity, culture and camaraderie with alcohol consumption. It also reveals the main strategies undertaken by alcohol companies to achieve interaction and social activation with consumers. Purpose While considerable research has explored the public health implications of traditional alcohol advertising and sponsorship in sport, less is known about how alcohol brands interact with consumers through social media. The aim of this research was to identify and evaluate the sport-linked social media strategies employed by alcohol brands engaged in sport sponsorship. These findings provide initial data to shape discussion around harm reduction as well as recommendations for future research in relation to understanding how these strategies influence consumer attitudes and behaviours. Method This study explored sport-linked alcohol communication appearing on the most frequently used social media platforms including Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. ‘Sport-linked alcohol communication’ was considered to be any marketing communication text which referenced a specific sport or sporting organisation in its message content, or any image depicting an alcohol-related product or brand in a sport context. The focus was primarily on the major alcohol brands sponsoring the Australian Football League (AFL), the National Rugby League (NRL), and Australian Cricket during the latter part of 2013 and throughout much of 2014. The study was conducted during the active seasons of each sport, paying particular attention to the associated marketing and promotional activity during key events such as finals. The unit of analysis comprised the content of the relevant social network sites and the coding units were individual posts and images. A content analysis was used to elicit themes and images from the online text. In total six beer brands, eight wine brands and three spirit brands were considered to be involved in sport sponsorship across the sports considered, although not all of these brands engaged in social media activities to leverage their association

Inviting the stranger in: Intimacy, digital technology and new geographies of encounter

Digital technologies are profoundly reshaping how people relate to unknown others, yet urban studies and geographies of encounter have yet to adequately incorporate these changes into theory and research. Building on a longstanding concern with stranger encounters in social and urban theory, this paper explores how digital technology brings new possibilities and challenges to urban life. With examples ranging from GPS-enabled apps for sex and dating to sharing economy platforms that facilitate the peer-to-peer exchange of services, new practices mediated by digital technology are making many stranger encounters a matter of choice rather than chance, and they are often private as much as they are public. This paper examines these changes to develop a conceptualisation of stranger intimacy as a potentially generative form of encounter involving conditional relations of openness among the unacquainted, through which affective structures of knowing, providing, befriending or even loving are built. We offer an agenda for researching stranger intimacies to better understand their role in generating new kinds of social and economic opportunity, overcoming constraints of space and place, as well as generating dynamics of inclusion and exclusion, privilege and disadvantage. The paper concludes by considering what critical attention to these encounters can offer geographical scholarship and how an emphasis on digital mediation can push research in productive directions. </jats:p

Sex(uality) in the city: Understanding the impact of locative media technology on queer urban geographies

Whilst the introduction of the internet has made it possible to experience life across great distances, the smartphone allows internet on the move. This project offers a new understanding of how locative media technology specifically impacts queer social and sexual encounters and queer spaces. Popular GPS-enabled smartphone apps including Tinder and Grindr play a valuable role in multiplying social and sexual networks for men seeking other men, but also provoke questions about their impact on space, embodiment and connectivity. This thesis applies the concept of hybridisation to male-male locative apps to develop a new approach to research bridging technology and sexuality. A qualitative approach utilising semi-structured interviews with 36 male-male app users living and working in London, UK, reveals how locative media impact on 1) technological hybridisation, 2) social and sexual encounter, and 3) queer public and private spaces. I shift debates regarding online self-presentation into more embodied scenarios that explore daily practice for the hyperconnected user in a digitally enhanced but demonstrably physical context. Developments in technology mean that we are more ‘plugged-in’ than ever before, but this project contends that the ostensible benefits of locative media in expediting physical encounter are complicated by more ambiguous outcomes. The novel efficacy of geospatial partner scoping is often inhibited by extensive labour for the user, tendencies to addictive app use, and clashes in digital-physical hybridisation. Users express uncertainty regarding online social codes and difficulties in aligning motives with others for physical encounter. Locative apps also domesticate encounter into the private space of home, compounding the wider economic deconcentration of queer public venues. These ambivalences show that whilst sociotechnical hybridisation is ostensibly enriching, the journey to embodied encounter in the contemporary city is far from seamless. This thesis contributes a more nuanced theoretical and empirical understanding of the risks and rewards of digital-physical hybridisation as it is experienced in real-life contexts for queer men

Abstracts: HASTAC 2017: The Possible Worlds of Digital Humanities

The document contains abstracts for HASTAC 2017

Research for Design of Playful Mobile Services for Social Experiences between Nearby Strangers

Having positive interpersonal interactions is a fundamental human need and source of well-being. While fulfilling this need is usually associated with strong ties, research has shown that meaningful social experiences are not limited to those. This research explores the largely untapped social potential of nearby strangers and ways that mobile services can be designed to take advantage of these social opportunities. Play and playfulness appear to be particularly worthwhile ways to achieve this end: play is meaningful in itself (i.e., does not require an external goal) and takes place outside the context of real life. In addition, playful design tends to make digital services more engaging. This research focuses on playfulness as a design quality and explores the social implications of playful mobile services for nearby strangers. This doctoral thesis asks two research questions: What kind of social experiences emerge between nearby strangers from the use of playful mobile services? How can playful mobile services be designed to encourage social experiences between nearby strangers? The research contributes to the field of human-computer interaction and provides insights into mobile service design through six research articles. Two of the studies charted expected experiences with early-stage mobile application concepts for playful interaction between nearby strangers. One of these concepts was further developed into a fully functional mobile application, and a large-scale, in-the-wild study was arranged to explore the actual social experiences it generated. Two of the studies investigated social experiences between nearby strangers in the context of commercial mobile games. The sixth study explored the design space of playful interactions between nearby strangers through co-design workshops. The playful mobile services investigated in this research were found to induce various behaviors that resulted in social experiences between nearby strangers. Examples of such behaviors are the active exploration of the outside world, community building, communicating and collaborating with strangers, and interacting in crowds. I found that playful and social experiences such as competition, surprise, curiosity, inspiration, and benevolence motivated individuals to use these services