Willard Middle School students chop carrots for a meal they will sell through Josephine. Teresa Chin/Youth Radio hide caption
sharing economy sharing economy
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A federal judge in California has allowed some Uber drivers to proceed with a class-action suit against the company. Jeff Chiu/AP hide caption
An Uber app is shown in Washington, D.C. Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images hide caption
A man leaves the headquarters of Uber in San Francisco. The California Labor Commission has ruled that one Uber driver in California is an employee of the company, and is owed certain benefits. Eric Risberg/AP hide caption
Joel Xu, 25, drives in Shanghai for People's Uber, a ride-sharing service. He makes about $4,000 a month – a good wage in Shanghai – and loves meeting new people he'd otherwise never encounter. Frank Langfitt/NPR hide caption
People's Republic Of Uber: Making Friends, Chauffeuring People In China
Our modern relationship to property — namely that it's burdensome to own, and therefore less valuable — has allowed the sharing economy to expand. Gustav Dejert/Ikon Images/Corbis hide caption
Peerby allows people to share their stuff through a mobile app for free. Peerby hide caption
The New York City skyline. Thomas Hawk/Flickr hide caption
Europeans throw away 90 million tons of food each year, including these vegetables pulled from waste bins of an organic supermarket in Berlin. A new German website aims to connect surplus food with people who want it. Fabrizio Bensch/Reuters /Landov hide caption
In one episode of Portlandia, Carrie Brownstein and Fred Armisen started a grass-roots campaign to prevent the Olympics from ever coming to Portland. IFC hide caption
A man picks up a rental car in in Burlingame, Calif., near San Francisco International Airport this summer. The car was left with the FlightCar company by a traveler who then flew out of the airport. Eric Risberg/AP hide caption
Renting out your couches — or your entire place — is powered by San Francisco–based Airbnb, which has now connected more than half a million willing hosts and travelers in more than 34,000 cities. iStockphoto.com hide caption
Citi Bike is the bike sharing program that launched this May in New York City. Bike sharing is part of the sharing economy. Spencer Platt/Getty Images hide caption