ABSTRACT
This introduction provides an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book deals with how sharing economies might signal the possibility of alternative futures in the way people live, work, distribute resources, and relates to one another more generally. It argues that this growth indicates a promising and viable, if imperfect, solution to housing crises in the Global North rooted explicitly in shared ownership, control and responsibility. The book explores the interweaving of Indigenous and settler-colonial land claims in northern Canada, considering how Indigenous populations have sought to maintain and promote their collective, sharing-oriented understandings of land use in the face of intense pressure from the Canadian state to conform to commodified, Eurocentric models of property ownership. The book makes distinctive theoretical and empirical contributions to understanding the everyday practices, politics and possibilities of sharing economies in an uncertain and volatile world.
