As a Canadian, the first time I took an uber, I must admit, it was quite strange. As an academic writer, I'm intrigued to unpack the topic. I started by using an 'app' to call a car. When the driver pulled up, I hopped into the back seat, and then he took me where I wanted to go. Money had been exchanged in the 'app,' so all I needed to do was take the ride and exit the car at my destination. Comparatively, it was much the same experience the first time I rented an Airbnb. In both cases, the atmosphere into which I entered belonged to the owner of the rented space. Or did it become my space as the renter, for the time during which I rented? Or was it, in fact, a shared space which I merely occupied for a time? Regardless of who owns the space, or who occupies the space, it represents a collaborative arena what we now know as "sharing economy" (Yildiz and Altan, 1114).

Works Cited

Sovani, Altaf, and Chandana (Chandi) Jayawardena. “How Should Canadian Tourism Embrace the Disruption Caused by the Sharing Economy?” Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Themes, vol. 9, no. 4, Aug. 2017, pp. 464–70. EBSCOhost, https://0-doi-org.aupac.lib.athabascau.ca/10.1108/WHATT-05-2017-0023.

Tavor, Tchai. “The Influence of Airbnb Announcements on North American Capital Markets: Insights for Stakeholders.” International Journal of Financial Studies, vol. 12, no. 1, Mar. 2024, p. 6. EBSCOhost, https://0-doi-org.aupac.lib.athabascau.ca/10.3390/ijfs12010006.

Vasconcelos, Isamara M., and Peter V. Hall. “Ride-Hailing Applications in Vancouver, Canada: Representation, Local Empowerment and Resistance.” Canadian Journal of Urban Research, vol. 30, no. 1, June 2021, p. 53. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edsggo&AN=edsgcl.672179686&site=eds-live.

Yıldız, Murat, and Meral Altan. “Literature Review of the Sharing Economy: Socio‐cultural Perspective.” Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology, vol. 33, no. 5, Sept. 2023, pp. 1112–36. EBSCOhost, https://0-doi-org.aupac.lib.athabascau.ca/10.1002/casp.2728.

Find the corresponding blog here: https://landing.athabascau.ca/blog/view/26782243/blog-4-the-sharing-economy-do-canadians-like-to-share