The Goethe Institute’s Kultursymposium Weimar will be a major event of which I expect a shift in our research about sharing. Thanks to Andreas Ströhl and his fellow workers for preparing this exciting event, and for inviting me to speak.

Sharing and exchange are basic human cultural practices. They play as big a role in poor countries as in affluent societies. But when do I share – and with whom? What social and cultural developments emerge from the various forms and manifestations of sharing and exchange? What is the meaning of trust in times of couch surfing and car sharing?