Circular economy is an alternative to the linear “extract-use-dispose” economic model, based on the ideas of recycling, repair and reuse. The circular economy promises to turn the trade-offs of unsustainable economic growth in a limited planet into synergies that make sustainability a growth strategy. The knowledge base of the circular economy, however, is highly divided and characterised by controversy over the very possibility of circularity itself. This paper asks why such a controversial idea has gained so much traction in public policies, at the EU level and at lower scales, such as the urban level. Although the focus on win-win solutions was understandable in the context in which the first circular economy policies were formulated in the EU, in the current context this policy framing may obfuscate more than it enlightens by rendering debates about complex sustainability issues technical and apolitical.

Oikonomics, the UOC’s journal of economics, business and society, publishes in its 16th edition a dossier under the title: “Sustainability vectors: visions from economy”. Previously, on 14 April 2021, a webinar dedicated to the analysis of sustainable development and the SDGs had been organised within the framework of the UOC’s Economics and Business Studies, with the participation as speaker of the coordinator of the Oikonomics dossier, Professor Albert Puig, and the author of the first of the articles in the monograph, Professor Joan Torrent. The session was moderated by August Corrons, also a UOC professor and member of the Oikonomics editorial board, and it complements the contents of the dossier of the 16th edition of the journal.

Oikonomics, the UOC journal on economics, business and society, has published two special issues, 14th and 15th, dedicated to the collaborative economy. The two issues analyze from different points of view the analysis of a concept that is receiving increasing attention as a new economic agent that, through digital platforms, has shown its capacity for transformation. In the two issues of Oikonomics, this phenomenon is analyzed from a theoretical perspective, but also a practical one based on the empirical analysis of the trends that are taking place in this field. In this webinar video, the two coordinators of these two issues, the lecturers of the Economics and Business Studies Department, Joan Torrent and Lluís Garay, talk about the evolution of the collaborative economy concept and the different visions and realities related around it, as well as its capacity to transform society. The moderator of the webinar is the Dean of the Economics and Business Department of the UOC, M.ª Jesús Martínez.

Oikonomics, the UOC journal on economics, business and society, has published two special issues, 14th and 15th, dedicated to the collaborative economy. The two issues analyze from different points of view the analysis of a concept that is receiving increasing attention as a new economic agent that, through digital platforms, has shown its capacity for transformation. In the two issues of Oikonomics, this phenomenon is analyzed from a theoretical perspective, but also a practical one based on the empirical analysis of the trends that are taking place in this field. In this webinar video, the two coordinators of these two issues, the lecturers of the Economics and Business Studies Department, Joan Torrent and Lluís Garay, talk about the evolution of the collaborative economy concept and the different visions and realities related around it, as well as its capacity to transform society. The moderator of the webinar is the Dean of the Economics and Business Department of the UOC, M.ª Jesús Martínez.

Airbnb is the most valuable tourism company in history and an epitome of the platform economy in tourism. Since 2020, together with the entire tourism sector, it has experienced the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The paper presents the context for the current international research on Airbnb by describing the origin, current state, and possible developments of the platform offer during and after the pandemic. The data on the global Airbnb offer in 2018, 2019, and 2020 comes from web-scraping the platform website. It shows that the dynamic growth of accommodation supply stopped in the last year. The platform offer has continued to disperse geographically towards less saturated markets and rural areas during the pandemic period. Entire flats and apartments have been continuously growing in dominance in the structure of the listing, while the slower growth in the percentage of multihosts’ listings indicates a slowdown in the process of the professionalisation of the platform offer.

This paper examines some key changes to Airbnb's travel philosophy, protocols and standards since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. It reflects on how the climate of uncertainty imposed by the global health crisis has induced Airbnb to promote among its users a new ethos of flexibility, adaptability, liability and long-term commitment. In particular, we discuss how new protocols and regulatory measures have engendered a culture of uniformity and transparency regarding issues of health and safety, but also concerning social interactions, personal communication, labour, and the conduct of everyday life of Airbnb's hosts and guests. The article also highlights that the changes implemented by the platform have not gone unchallenged and how some of the protests against the new measures and protocols were manifested via the Airbnb Community Center. We conclude with a few considerations about possible future directions of the Airbnb hospitality machinery and their potential consequences on the post-pandemic landscapes of travel and tourism.

The sector of urban passenger transport with tourism vehicles (taxis and vehicles for hire) is, surely, the one where the appearance of the sharing economy –or, we can choose to say, the digital platforms– has given rise to more heated controversies, more questionable regulatory measures and a greater number of disputes. In the work presented herein, a brief review is set out of the latest regulatory issues which have been outlined here, highlighting those which are still awaiting resolution, in a sense which is seemingly not easy to perceive.

The regulation of work has been built on a dependent/self-employed dichotomy, which is being overcome by the development of new forms of employment. Among these, those linked to new economic models, such as the collaborative economy, are becoming very relevant. In these forms of work people provide services with an economic value, but outside traditional markets and contractual schemes. These provisions of services find a faulty fit in this binary model, demanding their own regulatory framework. The objective of this work is to define this problem, and to propose some alternatives to solve it.

The evolution towards the network company and the resulting fragmentation of work increases the number of self-employed persons with intermittent relationships between various employers and with their potential co-workers. In this context, «collectives of the self-employed» emerge in contrast to the narrative that self-employed workers are isolated from each other. These collectives organise fights against algorithms, fights for labour rights, pool material and digital resources and even present themselves to the market under a unified brand without being a company. As emerging forms of organisation, they face challenges regarding their recognition as actors in social dialogue and are even accused of acting as cartels under the prism of free competition. Although their current forms are probably not the definitive forms, we can intuit that the «collectives of the self-employed» have and will have a relevant role in defining the ways of working and living in the future.