Osamu Saito
United Nations University Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability (UNU-IAS)
Tokyo, Japan 

What and how are we sharing? Academic landscape of the sharing paradigm and practices. Objectives and organization of the book.- Home-based food provision and social capital in Japan.- Food provisioning services via homegardens and communal sharing in satoyama socio-ecological production landscapes on Japan's Noto peninsula.- Non-market food provisioning services via homegardens and communal sharing in satoyama socio-ecological production landscapes on Japan's Noto peninsula.- Sharing experiences and associated knowledge in the changing waterscape: an intergenerational sharing program in Mikatagoko area, Japan.- "Sustaining Diverse Knowledge Systems in SEPLs: Sharing Tacit Knowledge of Apiculture and Mushroom Production with Future Generations.- Can new digital technologies and traditional sharing practices be inte-grated? The case of use of natural resources in Palau, Micronesia.- Solidarity Economy in Brazil: Towards Institutionalization of Sharing and Agroecological Practices.- Sharing knowledge and value for nurturing socioecological production landscapes: a case of payment for ecosystem services in Rejoso watershed, Indonesia.- Sharing Place: A case study on the loss of peri-urban landscape to urbanization in India.- Cow-Sharing and Alpine ecosystems. A comparative case study of sharing practices and property rights .- Synthesis: Can sharing enhance the sustainability and resilience of our society?. 

Using ¿the sharing paradigm¿ as a guiding concept, this book demonstrates that ¿sharing¿ has much greater potential to make rural society resilient, sustainable and inclusive through enriching all four sharing dimensions: informal, mediated, communal and commercial sharing. The chapters are divided into two parts, one that focuses on case studies of the sharing ecosystem services in Japan, the other on case studies from around the world including in the regions of Africa, Asia-Pacific, South America and Europe. Reflecting the recent growing attention to sharing concept and its application to economic and urban context, this publication explores opportunities and challenges to build more resilient and sustainable society in harmony with nature by critical examination of sharing practices in rural landscapes and seascapes around the world. This book introduces not only traditional communal and non-market sharing practices in different rural areas, but also new forms of sharingthrough integration of traditional practices and modern science and technologies.