Online Hospitality Networks

Dissertantin: Maartje Roelofsen
Betreuer: Univ.-Prof. Dr. Ulrich Ermann

Abstract: This research intends to contribute to the existing body of critical scholarly work on the sharing economies of tourism. It investigates the spatialities that emerge from the quantification and qualification of bodily performances of hospitality in/through the Airbnb economy. It does so by analysing some of the key technologies and calculative rationalities that drive the platform such as its review and rating system, as well as drawing on (auto) ethnographic work, which took place in Sofia (Bulgaria) over a period of three months. By using biopolitics and performance theory as analytical frameworks, this thesis seeks to contribute to a critical understanding of the contemporary geographies of the sharing economies of tourism – one that elicits the emergence of new forms of power that aim to order, control and reshape everyday life and living.