Lenka J. Budilová
Charles University, Prague
[lenka.jakoubkovabudilova@fhs.cuni.cz]
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4311-6359
Marek Jakoubek
University of Pardubice
[marek.jakoubek@upce.cz]
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7235-5327
Geographies of sharing and the East/West divide in Europe. The case of HomeExchange
Abstract: Sharing economy supposed to be a current global, or at least Western, phenomenon, running across geographic, nation or culture borders. In the globalized world, everybody with the access to the Internet can participate in sharing economy platforms. This article shows that this is not the case even within the West, more specifically Europe. The text argues that the participation in the hospitality platforms follow old political, geographical and culture borderlines in Europe. The authors use the example of HomeExchange.com, a hospitality platform built on the sharing economy business model, to show that contemporary hospitality networks might reproduce the old borderlines and culture divides.
Keywords: sharing economy; Europe; Eastern Europe; Western Europe; hospitality tourism; HomeExchange.
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