The American philosopher Charles Eisenstein has popularized the idea of ‘living in the gift’. This means a culture in which people share with each other without expecting something in return. Large areas of our lives only work through the gift economy: most work done in families works on the principle of the ‘gift economy’, for example parents work hard to bring up their children. Without trust in a self-evident but mostly unconscious gift economy as the basis of society, our economy could hardly function. The people who argue most to apply this idea to other areas of society are those who want to distance themselves from an egoistic, consumer-oriented, capitalist market economy. It is an attempt to create an alternative to the increasing ‘economization’ of life, one based on human values. Activists for the Gift Economy want to change the underlying philosophy of the financial economy. Why, they ask, should goods and services always be given in expectation of a service in return? Is it not possible to create an economic order based on unconditional giving? If everyone gave their services freely and simultaneously received from others, wouldn’t everyone get what they needed? Critics argue that in today’s throw-away culture of western capitalism there are always spare goods and services that could easily be given away but are usually thrown away, which would seem to suggest that a gift economy is not currently functioning. How should a gift economy work in a situation of scarcity? There are people who have turned this approach into a way of life and live completely without money, such as Heidemarie Schwermer. Another clear trend that has established itself, particularly since the worldwide financial crisis, is the Sharing Economy or Collaborative Economy. Many different platforms and companies are working with this concept. The often quoted main idea is to make underused resources available to a wider public through the use of information technology: accommodation, transport, tools, services – all kinds of products and services can be shared. However, complementary currencies, micro-finance and direct credit (peer- to- peer lending) are also often counted within the Sharing Economy. This Economy of Sharing indeed looks at first sight as though it is led by values of solidarity and cooperation but is just as often criticized for being captured by commercial forces. The idea first stood for sharing tools, vehicles or rooms that one was not using but out of this idea have grown completely commercial business models: renters ‘share’ unused rooms with tourists through “Air B n’ B”, car owners ‘share’ their journeys with people seeking lifts through “Uber”. Apart from these two well known clearly profit-oriented examples there are many others that are keeping the spirit of the sharing economy alive: Car sharing firms allow non car owners to be able to use cars and replace eight privately owned cars with one shared car. In urban communal gardens hobby gardeners happily share ground, tools, jobs and often also the harvest. In the ‘community supported agriculture’ movement one group (of usually 100-200 people) shares the living costs of the farmer: the group collectively decides what is to be grown and pays the farmer’s wages; he or she plants, looks after and shares the harvest with the group members – the risk is also shared and people undertake full responsibility for each other and for good nutrition. One important platform in this area is “Ouishare”.