Editorial: Contested spaces in the sharing economy

Abstract

ABSTRACT The explosive growth of collaborative or peer-economy platforms has disrupted “business as usual” in tourism and triggered broad research interest in certain aspects or players of the sharing economy. This special issue explores diverse manifestations of the sharing economy in the context of its impacts upon and complex relationship with tourism spaces, by offering six, conceptually reflexive and empirically rich studies of how the sharing economy is transforming destinations, communities, consumers and tourism governance in Nordic and Mediterranean regions. The volume sheds light on the particular political, socio-cultural, demographic, organizational, institutional and technological conditions that are shaping new collaborative endeavours in tourism. Instead of fixating on sudden socio-spatial disruptions, the contributions are observant to changes unfolding over a longer period and in different geographical contexts. This longitudinal perspective also enables a more sophisticated discussion of the sharing economy’s impact beyond tourism, and its entanglements with social welfare models, cooperative production systems, resilient communities and digital infrastructures.