This chapter describes the emergence of solidarity actions in two European countries—Greece and Hungary—in response to two recent crises: the arrival of large numbers of refugees in 2015 and the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Focusing on the experiences in two European countries with different socio-political, historical trajectories and civic traditions, we look at how solidarity economy emerged in crisis and how it was framed not only on monetised value but also on care and nurture. Our accounts of Greece and Hungary draw from ethnographic fieldwork and other qualitative social research (interviews and focus groups) with grassroots solidarity collectives.
Freedom of movement is a fundamental human right. The transportation sector, therefore, holds high socio-economic significance—while contributing almost a quarter of Europe’s greenhouse gas emissions and being a major air polluter. Key parts of the ‘collaborative and sharing economy’ relate to transport, including peer-to-peer and on-demand transportation. While these forms of ‘collaborative consumption’ may be seen as promoting environmental sustainability, such models also generate inequality and regulatory disputes (e.g., Uber’s workers and licences), leading to stakeholder conflict. This chapter examines the importance of the main shared mobility services within the transportation sector, their contribution to changing mobility habits, and their connection to sustainable development issues. We also consider conflicts in different European countries caused by shared mobility and the possible effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The migrant and refugee crisis that culminated in 2015–2016 brought about a number of new phenomena and lessons for Europe. Hungary also experienced an intense, albeit relatively short period of the crisis in 2015 as a transit country, but the impact of this period goes beyond its duration. One remarkable new phenomenon of the migration crisis was the emergence of a volunteer grassroots solidarity movement that operated large-scale aid activities by using a hybrid online–offline model. The volunteers formed and maintained their grassroots groups online, via Facebook, to organize their daily activities, logistics and fundraising in order to provide an effective on-site, offline aid activity for migrants and refugees. The spontaneous solidarity movement emerged from nowhere provides an example of how activity through social media platforms interacts with offline humanitarian aid activity in the framework of a ‘go online to act offline’ model and how the relationship is transformed by the proliferation of the online activity.
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