Political organizing and narrative framing in the sharing economyAirbnb host clubs in New York City

Abstract

As cities accommodate, resist, and negotiate with the spread of so-called ‘sharing economy’ companies, the question of how these businesses actively construct new markets (or sub-markets) through political mobilization and rhetorical strategy has become increasingly salient. This paper explores the ways in which the home-sharing platform Airbnb has sought to carve out a regulatory and discursive space for operation through the political mobilization of its ‘hosts’ in New York City. Based on nearly two years of ethnographic research, the paper argues that host clubs are not merely top-down transmission belts for the company’s political lobbying strategy; beyond political organizing, they are also sites in which the very practices of hosting through Airbnb are affirmed, rehearsed, learned, and debated. On the one hand, Airbnb host clubs are both physical embodiments of, and mechanisms for, the narrative framing of ‘home-sharing’ as a particular kind of economic activity that is more democratic, inclusive, and sustainable than the traditional hospitality industry. On the other hand, Airbnb host clubs reveal and reflect the tensions – between hosts and Airbnb, and among hosts themselves – that persist over the practice of home-sharing. As the calls for tighter regulation and increased penalties for illegal short-term rentals continue to grow, however, the question of whether host clubs constitute a viable mechanism for political mobilization and regulatory reform remains an open one.

Keywords:

• Airbnb
• sharing economy
• platform urbanism
• regulatory entrepreneurship
• host clubs
• New York City

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank the participants of the CUNY Faculty Fellowship Publication Program (in particular, faculty mentor Katherine Chen) as well as the participants of the Cities and Diaspora Faculty Seminar at LaGuardia Community College (in particular, seminar organizers Karen Miller and Christopher Schmidt) for comments on earlier drafts. Finally, the author would like to thank the two anonymous reviewers for CITY for comments and feedback.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

Funding for this research was made possible in part by the PSC-CUNY Research Award Program.

Notes on contributors

Filip Stabrowski

Filip Stabrowski is Professor of Anthropology at LaGuardia Community College, City University of New York. Email: [email protected]