Crowds, communities, (post)capitalism and the sharing economy

In this article, we reflect upon the ambivalences of the term ‘sharing economy’, and the disillusionment about its potential to create a space for postcapitalist, peer-to-peer, non-market or more socially intense forms of exchange. We argue that, at the same time, these ambivalences show how the diffusion of sharing practices is open to a variety of different outcomes, and an interesting terrain for exploring the limits and alternatives to (digital) capitalism as we know it. On this basis, we introduce the contents of the Special Feature, whose aim is to explore such limits, focusing in particular on the role that ‘communities’ and ‘crowds’ play in the discursive formation and in the practical operations of digital sharing platforms