Networked Cultures in the Collaborative Economy

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.