Project 5 “Critiquing Diversity” lecture series 2016 “The Geographies of the Sharing Economy” by Professor Claudio MINCA
- Time and Date
- 7:00 - 8:30PM, Tuesday, November 29, 2016
- Venue
- Collaboration Room 3, 4th Floor, Building 18, The University of Tokyo, Komaba
- Speaker
-
- Claudio MINCA (Professor and Head of the Cultural Geography chair group at Wageningen University)
- Maartje ROELOFSEN (PhD candidate at Karl-Franzens-University Graz, Department of Geography and Regional Science)
- Language
- English
- Note
- Admission Free; No Registration Required
- Organized by
- the Educational Project 5 "Cultural Diversity and Imagination," Integrated Human Sciences Program for Cultural Diversity, The University of Tokyo
Project 5 "Cultural Diversity and Imagination" is pleased to inform that we are going to invite Professor Claudio Minca and Ms. Maartje Roelofsen to our lecture series 2016 "Critiquing Diversity". Referring to hospitality exchange networks such as Airbnb and Couchsurfing, they will be discussing the possibility of the growing sharing economy from cultural geographical perspectives. Students are highly encouraged to participate in this opportunity and discuss the ongoing phenomenon with the leading geographer Professor Minca.
Abstract
With the rise of hospitality exchange networks such as Airbnb and Couchsurfing the ways in which people travel and connect with "other" cultures has significantly changed. These networks have turned residential accommodation, the private sphere, and 'the labour of care' into commodities, which are exchanged between individuals without interference of commercial tourism entities. The networks operate myriads of digital technologies not only to help people connect, but also to quantify and qualify the meaning and the value of these exchanges. In effect, they have come play an important role in determining who is in and out of the sharing economy. In this lecture we discuss the consequences these technologies have for the ways in which people and places are drawn into a "sharing" geography, and what "values" they come to have in this new economy. What does it mean to share a home and the intimacies of one's private life? What are the travel philosophies and business objectives that underlie these networks and what will they mean for how places are understood in the future? In this lecture we explore some of these questions, drawing on our findings, which we derived from an extensive ethnography and interviews, and our own experiences as both hosts and guests in these networks.
* N.B.
- IHS students will be asked to submit a report essay after attending the lecture.
- By participating in this event, you acknowledge that you are aware that pictures, video, and audio of the event may be used for the purpose of the program.
