Cristina Miguel

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Verified

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• PhD in Communication
• Visiting Research Fellow at University of Reading

Digital nomads (DNS) are highly mobile professionals who work while traveling and travel while working. Their lifestyle has gained increasing academic attention, also from a communication perspective. Despite initial work on the topic, little is known about the self-presentation practices of DNs on social media. To address this lack of evidence and...

Short-term rental platforms such as Airbnb have enjoyed considerable success in recent years. However, critics accuse the platforms of having negative impacts, leading to gentrification, disruption, and increased rent and house prices. While research has investigated actual impacts of short-term rental platforms, we lack systematic, generalizable,...

The ‘digital nomad’ (DN) neotribe includes professionals who work remotely from different locations. Despite the benefits of digital nomadism (e.g., work flexibility, high mobility, leisure-centeredness) and opportunities for meeting like-minded people, one of the consequences of the lifestyle may be loneliness. By using 30 in-depth interviews, thi...

Background: Digital nomads are professionals who travel while working remotely. The digital nomad lifestyle has seen rapid growth in recent years, propelled by the Covid-19 pandemic and increasing flexibility in working arrangements. As remote work becomes increasingly viable and popular, Europe has seen a significant rise in digital nomads. Obje...

The term 'digital nomad' has gained popularity to describe professionals who work remotely from different locations facilitated by using information and communication technology. This study explores the interaction between digital nomadism and loneliness, digital nomads' coping mechanisms to fight loneliness (with a special focus on social media us...

Airbnb not only has transformed the hospitality industry but also has created wider economic change in adjacent industries and in society in general. Because of this, many stakeholders are now trying to proactively shape the evolution of such platforms, as reflected by numerous actions by policymakers, industry representatives, media outlets and th...

In this position paper, we have used Alan Cooper’s persona technique to illustrate the utility of audio- and video-based AAL technologies. Therefore, two primary examples of potential audio- and video-based AAL users, Anna and Irakli, serve as reference points for describing salient ethical, legal and social challenges related to use of AAL. These...

Fashion has been a motivator for Internet use for a long time, with fashion blogs starting to appear in 2002 (Rocamora, 2012). Users post content they deem fashionable on social media, using hashtags and giving style advice to appear fashionable whilst following and taking photos of others (street style fashion blogging) for inspiration (Dolbec et...

The sharing economy is at the centre of current debates involving new technologies, sustainability, big data and stakeholder engagement. This edited volume encourages new theoretical and empirical development on sharing economy studies in the service industries field.

This study explores the perceived impacts of short-term rentals (STRs) in the United Kingdom through a quantitative analysis. A 57-item questionnaire covering socio-cultural, economic, political, environmental, and technological impacts of STRs was distributed online among guests, hosts, and aware non-users. Apart from descriptive statistics, the d...

The aim of this paper is to analyze the dynamics of mutual engagement within the foodie influencer communities of practice created via Instagram. The study is based on 20 in-depth interviews with foodie Instagrammers. Findings demonstrate that unlike other communities of practice, rather than competing among themselves , foodies learn from each oth...

This open access book considers the development of the sharing and collaborative economy with a European focus, mapping across economic sectors, and country-specific case studies. It looks at the roles the sharing economy plays in sharing and redistribution of goods and services across the population in order to maximise their functionality, moneta...

The chapter is the final one in the volume of collected papers aiming to discuss the sharing economy in Europe. The idea of the book emerged within the research network created by the COST Action CA16121 ‘From Sharing to Caring: Examining Socio-Technical Aspects of the Collaborative Economy.’ The authors of the chapter sum up theoretical and empiri...

This chapter explains the rationale behind the book. It provides basic definitions of the concept of the sharing economy as well as the primary meanings related to the subject of the analysis undertaken in the subsequent chapters. This Introduction also includes a description of the main benefits of the analysis of the sharing economy from a Europe...

The aim of this chapter is to discuss the evolution of the peer-to-peer (P2P) accommodation phenomenon in Europe and to examine the key trends noticeable in the sector, including any external factors that influence P2P accommodation operations, practices and future development. Correspondingly, the chapter also examines the opportunities and challe...

The sharing economy aims to redistribute existing goods (e.g., tools, cars) across the population in order to maximise their functionality. Within sharing economies, there can be monetary exchange (e.g., Airbnb, BlaBlaCar), or the exchange can be altruistic (e.g., Timebanking, CouchSurfing). Nevertheless, sharing economy platforms mainly function a...

Time banks allow people to exchange and trade their skills; an hour for an hour. Today the United Kingdom (UK) has built a diverse ecosystem around times and skills sharing of both generic (e.g., TimeBanking UK, Communities Together) and specialist skills (e.g., Frontline19). This chapter defines the main characteristics and benefits of time banks....

Contingency plans and crisis management strategies have been implemented by the short-term rental industry to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper examines the strategies adopted by three key groups of stakeholders: short-term rental platforms (e.g. Airbnb, Booking.com), service providers (represented by property management companies and sho...

In this position paper, we have used Alan Cooper's persona technique to illustrate the utility of audio- and video-based AAL technologies. Therefore, two primary examples of potential audio- and video-based AAL users, Anna and Irakli, serve as reference points for describing salient ethical, legal and social challenges related to use of AAL. These...

Ambient assisted living (AAL) technologies are increasingly presented and sold as essential smart additions to daily life and home environments that will radically transform the healthcare and wellness markets of the future. An ethical approach and a thorough understanding of all ethics in surveillance/monitoring architectures are therefore pressin...

Ambient assisted living (AAL) technologies are increasingly presented and sold as essential smart additions to daily life and home environments that will radically transform the healthcare and wellness markets of the future. An ethical approach and a thorough understanding of all ethics in surveillance/monitoring architectures are therefore pressin...

Ambient assisted living (AAL) technologies are increasingly presented and sold as essential smart additions to daily life and home environments that will radically transform the healthcare and wellness markets of the future. An ethical approach and a thorough understanding of all ethics in surveillance/monitoring architectures are therefore pressin...

Purpose Adopting Ajzen’s theory of planned behaviour theoretical framework, this paper aims to explore repurchase intentions among short-term rental users and changes in determinants of repurchase intention in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Design/methodology/approach Data for the research was collected via a cross-country quantitative surv...

The book titled The Collaborative Economy in Action: European Perspectives is one of the important outcomes of the COST Action CA16121, From Sharing to Caring: Examining the Socio-Technical Aspects of the Collaborative Economy (short name: Sharing and Caring; sharingandcaring.eu) that was active between March 2017 and September 2021. The Action was...

This chapter aims to examine the configuration of the sharing economy in the United Kingdom. The chapter provides an examination of the key opportunities and challenges that this socio-economic model generates in the country. It includes an account of different sharing economy initiatives in the United Kingdom, including crowdfunding projects, tool...

The Covid-19 pandemic has brought international tourism at a standstill. Peer-to-peer (P2P) accommodation, in particular, has been greatly affected with platforms being heavily criticised for lacking a strategic response to users’ needs. Drawing from the perspectives of P2P accommodation hosts, this study aims to explore: a) their perceptions of th...

Highlights  The Covid-19 pandemic has affected the peer-to-peer accommodation sector.  We examine host perceptions of and responses to the Covid-19 pandemic.  We identify five host types according to their response to the pandemic.  We offer a continuum of different categories of host pandemic responses.  The continuum may be of theoretical an...

Peer to peer (P2P) accommodation platforms like Airbnb or HomeAway have transformed not only the hospitality industry but they have also created wider economic change in other adjacent industries and in society in general. Because of this, many stakeholders are now trying to proactively shape the evolution of these platforms, as reflected by numero...

This book examines how intimate relationships are built, negotiated and maintained through social media. The study takes a cross-platform approach, analysing three social media platforms of different genres – Badoo, Couchsurfing and Facebook – and exploring two interactive forces that shape the way people communicate through social media: the platf...

There are a number of social media services for meeting new people online. In particular, this chapter is focused on Badoo (dating/hook-up platform) and CouchSurfing (hospitality exchange/meet-up platform). Other dating sites were incorporated in the analysis since participants also used these services. In this chapter, the importance of developing...

This chapter presents the main conclusions of the research project about intimacy practices in the age of social media and elaborates the concept of networked intimacy. The study focused on (mediated) intimacy practices among adults (25–49 years old) through three different platforms (Badoo, CouchSurfing, and Facebook) to analyse how users create a...

This chapter presents an intimacy conceptual framework, discussing a number of concepts related to intimacy mediated through social media. First, the definition of intimacy is approached from different disciplines (e.g., philosophy, sociology, psychology). Then, the chapter elaborates in the often overlapping terms of privacy and intimacy. It quest...

The main objective of this chapter is to conduct a cross-platform analysis and identify disclosure patterns in three different social media platforms: Badoo, CouchSurfing, and Facebook. Drawing on Hogan’s (2010) exhibitionistic approach, in this chapter, user profiles are analysed as cultural artefacts, which are tools for self-(re)presentation and...

This paper aims to contribute to the understanding of how to study the way people build intimacy and manage privacy through social media interaction. It explores the research design and methodology of a research project based on a multi-sited case study composed of the SNSs CouchSurfing, Badoo, and Facebook in order to observe intimacy practices ac...

In Iran, social media platforms have become powerful tools for political and inter-personal communication. They open new ways for their users, particularly women, to negotiate their intimate relationships with their family, (potential) partners or friends. Intimacy online is usually achieved through reciprocal visual and textual self-disclosure, wh...

This article is based on a study that analyzes the use of pictures to build and convey intimacy through social media interactions across two platforms of different genres: Badoo (dating/hook-up platform) and Facebook. The study explores what kinds of pictures participants (aged 25–49 years) consider to be intimate and whether they disclose those ki...

What do social media users think about social media data mining? To date, this question has been researched through quantitative studies that produce diverse findings and qualitative studies adopting either a privacy or a surveillance perspective. In this article, we argue that qualitative research which moves beyond these dominant paradigms can co...

The purpose of this chapter is to present some thoughts on how photographic practices are part of an increasing normalization of intimate mediations by forming specific assemblages (see Rose, 2014) of text, connectivity, seduction, and timing. We will focus specifically on sexually mediated practices, since these seem to be a fertile ground to anal...