Background

The terms “Sharing Economy” or “Collaborative Economy” have been commonly used in recent years to refer to a proliferation of initiatives, business models and forms of work, from the development of far-reaching corporate digital platforms that have become means of organising cooperative practices, to local, regional and community-led collaborative initiatives in sectors such as housing, tourism, transport, social enterprise, culture and the arts, etc. Researchers from many disciplines are currently conducting ethnographic studies of practices, cultures, socio-technical systems and lived experiences of collaborative economies, producing case studies and data sets documenting these realities and their impacts and implications, as well as developing methodological and epistemological insights and sensibilities about approaching these contexts
ethnographically.

The conference will feature parallel paper presentations, keynote talks and open discussion sessions.

Participation in the conference will be free of charge (but places will be limited).

The conference is supported by the COST Action “From Sharing to Caring: Examining the Socio-Technical Aspects of the Collaborative Economy” ( http://sharingandcaring.eu/), developing a network of actors focusing on the development of collaborative economy models and platforms and on social and technological implications of the collaborative economy through a practice focused approach.

Submission Themes

We are soliciting papers contributing ethnographic accounts and understandings of collaborative economy practices and communities, and therefore contributing to the development of a multi-faceted view on sharing and caring practices. We are also keen on receiving papers focusing on the methodological aspects of studying collaborative economi(es) e.g. collaborative ethnography, participatory action research, co-design etc.

Suggested themes include (but are not limited to):

• Ethnographic accounts of practices and/or of forms of community aggregation in collaborative economy settings
• Ethnographic case studies of collaborative economy initiatives, frameworks and platforms
• Instances of ethnographically-informed design of collaborative systems in support of collaborative economy practices
• Reflections on theoretical, epistemological and methodological challenges of studying the collaborative economy ethnographically

Submission Instructions

• Abstracts should be between 500 and 700 words
• Papers should be between a minimum of 3,000 and a maximum of 4,000 words plus references.
• Papers should be anonymised for submission
• Papers should be formatted according to the requested template.
• Submissions should be made through EasyChair.
• All papers will be peer reviewed by the Scientific Committee, and accepted papers will be included in the conference book of proceedings and invited for presentation at the conference.
• Following the conference, authors of accepted papers will be invited to submit extended versions of their contributions for consideration for inclusion into an edited book.

Important Dates

Abstract Submission Deadline: 15 April 2019

Notifications to Authors: 29 April 2019

Papers Submission Deadline: 19 July 2019

Notifications to Authors: 19 August 2019

Final Versions of Papers Due: 20 September 2019

Conference in Edinburgh: 25th October 2019

Organising Committee

Penny Travlou (University of Edinburgh)

Proferssor Luigina Ciolfi (Sheffield Hallam University)

Scientific Committee

https://ulris.ul.ie/live/[email protected]Gabriela Avram (University of Limerick, IE)

Chiara Bassetti (University of Trento, IT)

Vida Česnuitytė (Mykolas Romeris University, LT)

Professor Luigina Ciolfi (Sheffield Hallam University, UK)

Professor Richard Coyne (University of Edinburgh, UK)

Morgan Currie (University of Edinburgh, UK)

Professor Dimitris Dalakoglou (Vrije University Amsterdam, NL)

Anna Farmaki (Cyprus University of Technology, CY)

Alessandro Gandini (University of Milan, IT)

Karen Gregory (University of Edinburgh, UK)

Athina Karatzogianni (University of Leicester, UK)

Cindy Kohtala (Aaalto University, FI)

Airi Lampinen (Stockholm University, SE)

Cristina Miguel (Leeds Beckett University, UK)

Maria Partalidou (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, GR)

Chiara Rossitto (Stockholm University, SE)

Mariacristina Sciannamblo (Madeira Interactive Technologies Institute, PT)

Professor Chris Speed (University of Edinburgh, UK)

James Stewart (University of Edinburgh, UK)

Özge Subaşi (Koç University, TR)

Penny Travlou (University of Edinburgh, UK)

For further information about the conference and/or CFP, please email us here: [email protected] [email protected]

The post CfP: “Ethnographies of Collaborative Economi(es) Conference” – University of Edinburgh, 25 October, 2019 appeared first on P2P Foundation.

“The article describes a long-term collaboration with a variety of free culture activists in Madrid: digital artists, software developers and guerrilla architectural collectives. Coming of age as Spain walked into the abyss of the economic crisis, we describe how we re-functioned our ethnographic project into a ‘prototype’. We borrow the notion of prototype from free culture activism: a socio-technical design characterised by the openness of its underlying technical and structural sources, including for example access to its code, its technical and design specifications, and documentary and archival registries. These ethnographic prototypes functioned as boundary objects and zones of infrastructural enablement that allowed us to argue with our collaborators about the city at the same time as we argued through the city. Providing a symmetrical counterpoint to the actions of free culture hackers elsewhere in the city, our anthropological prototypes were both a cultural signature of the radical praxis taking place in Madrid today and its expressive infrastructure.”

You may find the full article here.

Photo by fusion-of-horizons

The post When the Ethnographic Method Goes Open Source appeared first on P2P Foundation.