Title: Sharing within a city in crisis: two ICTs-supported P2P economic networks in Thessaloniki, Northern Greece

Authors: Eleni Margariti; Penny Travlou

Addresses: The University of Edinburgh, 40/3 Buccleuch Street, EH8 9LP, Edinburgh, UK ' The University of Edinburgh, Lauriston Place, Architecture and Landscape Architecture, Edinburgh College of Art, EH3 9DF, Edinburgh, UK

Abstract: The paper focuses on two emerging networks of sharing economy in Greece's second largest city, Thessaloniki: Trapeza Chronou, a time bank, and 'KOI.NO', a community-currency network, both supported by open platform information and communications technology (ICTs). These two networks are approached as tactics that have the potential to generate socioeconomic change through bottom-up participation and ICTs-supported citizen engagement. Both initiatives utilise open source ICTs to facilitate urban economic networking as means for enhancing local resilience, social inclusion and community self-management. Based on semi-structured interviews with network members and participant observation of the case studies, the paper discusses: a) the socio-economic and technical characteristic; b) the structure and governance of these networks; c) evaluates their potential as pathways to radical socioeconomic change.

Keywords: P2P urbanism; sharing economy; information and communications technology; ICTs; commons; collaborative platforms; local resilience.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEG.2018.093803

International Journal of Electronic Governance, 2018 Vol.10 No.2, pp.196 - 217

Received: 02 May 2016
Accepted: 25 May 2017
Published online: 06 Aug 2018 *

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