Digitalization and the Hybridization of Markets and Circuits in Airbnb

• In Event: 2241 - New Consumption Research: politics, class and networks

Abstract

Digitalization, combined with the proliferation of online review and payment systems, has been integral to the creation of the sharing economy. While the sharing economy has opened industries to additional workers, such opportunities also shift risks to users and led to a hybridization of previously pure economic concepts such as markets and circuits of commerce. Using qualitative interviews with 23 Airbnb hosts in New York City, I argue that Airbnb's shifting of risk to workers leads to a hybridized form of institutional work as hosts create a social circuit in order to protect themselves from the risks inherent in a marketplace that is both formal and informal, and regularly crosses the boundaries between legal and illegal. Unlike in a circuit of commerce, where personal relationships lead to the development of an economic relationship, within the social circuit the desire for an economic relationship is the impetus for the creation of a temporary facsimile of a personal relationship. In the case of Airbnb, money both makes a connection between guest and host possible and ensures that it remains impersonal and is marked with clear boundaries. This research contributes to the larger literature on digitalized and informal markets and circuits, risk, and the sharing economy, by providing evidence that this new economic movement is not only creating market change but also changing the very nature of networks within markets. This work further contributes to the study of the societal impact of digitalization and on the development of novel market forms.

Author

• Alexandrea J. Ravenelle, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill