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This book examines how intimate relationships are built, negotiated and maintained through social media. The study takes a cross-platform approach, analysing three social media platforms of different genres - Badoo, Couchsurfing and Facebook - and exploring two interactive forces that shape the way people communicate through social media: the platforms' architecture and policies, and actual practises of use. Combining analysis of the political economy of social media with users' perspectives of their own practises - as well as exploring the tensions between the two - the book provides a detailed picture of intimacy as a complex structure of continuity and change.

Chapter 1. Introduction: The Sharing Economy in Europe from Idea to Reality; Andrzej Klimczuk, Vida Česnuitytė, Cristina Miguel, Gabriela Avram, Bori Simonovits,Mijalche Santa, & Bálint Balázs -- 2. Conceptualisation of the Sharing Economy; Cristina Miguel, Esther Martos-Carrión, Andrzej Klimczuk, & Mijalche Santa -- 3. 3. The Context of Public Policy on the Sharing Economy; Andrzej Klimczuk -- 4. 4. The Regulatory Context and Legal Evolution: The Cases of Airbnb and Uber; Kosjenka Dumančić, & Natalia-Rozalia Avlona -- 5. Infrastructure for the Sharing Economy Spreading; by Vida Česnuitytė, Leta Dromantienė,& Julijana Angelovska -- 6. 6. Mobility and Transportation Sharing; Agnieszka Łukasiewicz, Anikó Bernát, & Vera Lúcia Alves Pereira Diogo -- 7. Peer-to-peer Accommodation in Europe: Trends, Challenges, and Opportunities; Anna Farmaki, & Cristina Miguel -- 8. From Uberisation to Commoning: Experiences, Challenges, and Potential Pathways of the Sharing Economy in Food Supply Chains in Europe; Bálint Balázs, & Bori Simonovits -- 9. Unpacking the Financial Services Evolution in the Sharing Economy; Mijalche Santa, & Agnieszka Łukasiewicz -- 10. Education, Information, and Data in the Era of Sharing; Gabriela Avram, & Eglantina Hysa -- 11. Sharing of Material Goods and Household Services; Vida Česnuitytė, Leta Dromantienė, & Anita Čeh Časni -- 12. Solidarity and Care Economy During Times of Crises: A Comparative View Between Hungary and Greece in 2015 and 2020; Penny Travlou, & Anikó Bernát -- 13. Sharing Economy in the Netherlands: Grounding Public Values in Shared Mobility and Gig Work Platforms; Martijn de Waal, & Martijn Arets -- 14. The Sharing Economy in France: From Cooperative Business to Platform Cooperatives; Myriam Lewkowicz, & Jean-Pierre Cahier -- 15. A Critical Perspective on the Sharing Economy in Tourism and the Hospitality Sector in Austria; Malte Höfner, & Rainer Rosegger; 16. Recent Developments in the Collaborative and Sharing Economy in Italy: Old and New Issues After the COVID-19 Crisis; Chiara Bassetti, Cary Yungmee Hendrickson, Monica Postiglione, Giulia Priora, Venere Sanna, & Stefano Valerio -- 17. Albania: Advances in Agriculture and Relation to Food Delivery and Health Sector; Eglantina Hysa, Alba Kruja, & Vera Shikp -- 18. An Examination of the Evolution of Timebanks in the United Kingdom Rodrigo Perez Vega, & Cristina Miguel -- 19. Facing COVID-19 and the Sharing Economy Business Models: Case Study of Poland; Agnieszka Łukasiewicz, & Aleksandra Nadolska -- 20. 20. Conclusion: The State and Future Prospects of the Sharing Economy in Europe; Vida Česnuitytė, Andrzej Klimczuk, Cristina Miguel, Gabriela Avram, Bori Simonovits,Mijalche Santa, & Bálint Balázs.

This open access book considers the development of the sharing and collaborative economy with a European focus, mapping across economic sectors, and country-specific case studies. It looks at the roles the sharing economy plays in sharing and redistribution of goods and services across the population in order to maximise their functionality, monetary exchange, and other aspects important to societies. It also looks at the place of the sharing economy among various policies and how the contexts of public policies, legislation, digital platforms, and other infrastructure interrelate with the development and function of the sharing economy. The book will help in understanding the future (sharing) economy models as well as to contribute in solving questions of better access to resources and sustainable innovation in the context of degrowth and growing inequalities within and between societies. It will also provide a useful source for solutions to the big challenges of our times such as climate change, the loss of biodiversity, and recently the coronavirus disease pandemic (COVID-19). This book will be of interest to academics and students in economics and business, organisational studies, sociology, media and communication and computer science.

This open access book considers the development of the sharing and collaborative economy with a European focus, mapping across economic sectors, and country-specific case studies. It looks at the roles the sharing economy plays in sharing and redistribution of goods and services across the population in order to maximise their functionality, monetary exchange, and other aspects important to societies. It also looks at the place of the sharing economy among various policies and how the contexts of public policies, legislation, digital platforms, and other infrastructure interrelate with the development and function of the sharing economy. The book will help in understanding the future (sharing) economy models as well as to contribute in solving questions of better access to resources and sustainable innovation in the context of degrowth and growing inequalities within and between societies. It will also provide a useful source for solutions to the big challenges of our times such as climate change, the loss of biodiversity, and recently the coronavirus disease pandemic (COVID-19). This book will be of interest to academics and students in economics and business, organisational studies, sociology, media and communication and computer science.

This open access book considers the development of the sharing and collaborative economy with a European focus, mapping across economic sectors, and country-specific case studies. It looks at the roles the sharing economy plays in sharing and redistribution of goods and services across the population in order to maximise their functionality, monetary exchange, and other aspects important to societies. It also looks at the place of the sharing economy among various policies and how the contexts of public policies, legislation, digital platforms, and other infrastructure interrelate with the development and function of the sharing economy. The book will help in understanding the future (sharing) economy models as well as to contribute in solving questions of better access to resources and sustainable innovation in the context of degrowth and growing inequalities within and between societies. It will also provide a useful source for solutions to the big challenges of our times such as climate change, the loss of biodiversity, and recently the coronavirus disease pandemic (COVID-19). This book will be of interest to academics and students in economics and business, organisational studies, sociology, media and communication and computer science.

Digital nomads (DNs) are highly mobile professionals who work while travelling and travel while working. Their lifestyle has gained increasing academic attention, also from a communication perspective. Despite initial work on the topic, little is known about the self-presentation practices of DNs on social media. To address this lack of evidence and focusing on Instagram as a key platform for this group, we adopt a Goffmanian perspective. By using semi-structured interviews, we provide an in-depth analysis of their self-presentational practices, specifically their content strategies, imagined audience and use of platform affordances. The interviews included photo elicitation as a central element. The findings show how DNs highlight independence and freedom, de-emphasize work in favour of leisure and travel, develop audience management strategies that are mindful of the imagined audiences' situation, while trying to foster reliability and authenticity and greatly value the flexibility and ephemerality of the Stories feature.

This chapter explains the rationale behind the book. It provides basic definitions of the concept of the sharing economy as well as the primary meanings related to the subject of the analysis undertaken in the subsequent chapters. This Introduction also includes a description of the main benefits of the analysis of the sharing economy from a European perspective. It highlights that the idea of the book emerged from the collaboration of most co-authors in the COST Action CA16121 'From Sharing to Caring: Examining Socio-Technical Aspects of the Collaborative Economy.' Finally, the outline of the book is presented, providing a description of the content of each chapter within this academic collection.

The chapter is the final one in the volume of collected papers aiming to discuss the sharing economy in Europe. The idea of the book emerged within the research network created by the COST Action CA16121 'From Sharing to Caring: Examining Socio-Technical Aspects of the Collaborative Economy.' The authors of the chapter sum up theoretical and empirical materials as well as country-specific cases provided in the book. The article critically assesses the current status of the sharing economy in European countries by highlighting major controversial issues related to deregulation, market disruption, or social inequality. The authors conclude that, considering the comprehensive and up-to-date materials collected and analysed in the book, it may become an outstanding source of knowledge and a practical tool in the process of expansion of the sharing economy in Europe and beyond.

The purpose of this chapter is to analyse approaches to the sharing economy from the perspective of public policy science. In the first part of the text, attention is paid to perceiving the development of the emerging sharing economy not only as phenomenon with positive economic effects but also as a set of public problems (e.g., on the labour market and for existing economic structures) that require intervention at the level of national governments as well as at international level. Subsequent sections identify possible actions for regulating the development of the sharing economy. The role of soft law, stakeholders' networks, self-regulation and standardisation are discussed in the chapter. The summary includes potential directions for further research.

Ambient assisted living (AAL) technologies are increasingly presented and sold as essential smart additions to daily life and home environments that will radically transform the healthcare and wellness markets of the future. An ethical approach and a thorough understanding of all ethics in surveillance/monitoring architectures are therefore pressing. AAL poses many ethical challenges raising questions that will affect immediate acceptance and long-term usage. Furthermore, ethical issues emerge from social inequalities and their potential exacerbation by AAL, accentuating the existing access gap between high-income countries (HIC) and low and middle-income countries (LMIC). Legal aspects mainly refer to the adherence to existing legal frameworks and cover issues related to product safety, data protection, cybersecurity, intellectual property, and access to data by public, private, and government bodies. Successful privacy-friendly AAL applications are needed, as the pressure to bring Internet of Things (IoT) devices and ones equipped with artificial intelligence (AI) quickly to market cannot overlook the fact that the environments in which AAL will operate are mostly private (e.g., the home). The social issues focus on the impact of AAL technologies before and after their adoption. Future AAL technologies need to consider all aspects of equality such as gender, race, age and social disadvantages and avoid increasing loneliness and isolation among, e.g. older and frail people. Finally, the current power asymmetries between the target and general populations should not be underestimated nor should the discrepant needs and motivations of the target group and those developing and deploying AAL systems. Whilst AAL technologies provide promising solutions for the health and social care challenges, they are not exempt from ethical, legal and social issues (ELSI). A set of ELSI guidelines is needed to integrate these factors at the research and development stage.

Ambient assisted living (AAL) technologies are increasingly presented and sold as essential smart additions to daily life and home environments that will radically transform the healthcare and wellness markets of the future. An ethical approach and a thorough understanding of all ethics in surveillance/monitoring architectures are therefore pressing. AAL poses many ethical challenges raising questions that will affect immediate acceptance and long-term usage. Furthermore, ethical issues emerge from social inequalities and their potential exacerbation by AAL, accentuating the existing access gap between high-income countries (HIC) and low and middle-income countries (LMIC). Legal aspects mainly refer to the adherence to existing legal frameworks and cover issues related to product safety, data protection, cybersecurity, intellectual property, and access to data by public, private, and government bodies. Successful privacy-friendly AAL applications are needed, as the pressure to bring Internet of Things (IoT) devices and ones equipped with artificial intelligence (AI) quickly to market cannot overlook the fact that the environments in which AAL will operate are mostly private (e.g., the home). The social issues focus on the impact of AAL technologies before and after their adoption. Future AAL technologies need to consider all aspects of equality such as gender, race, age and social disadvantages and avoid increasing loneliness and isolation among, e.g. older and frail people. Finally, the current power asymmetries between the target and general populations should not be underestimated nor should the discrepant needs and motivations of the target group and those developing and deploying AAL systems. Whilst AAL technologies provide promising solutions for the health and social care challenges, they are not exempt from ethical, legal and social issues (ELSI). A set of ELSI guidelines is needed to integrate these factors at the research and development stage.