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Airbnb and the paradox of the body

The biopolitical management of hosts in four tourist towns in New Zealand

Bibliographic Data

ID2399642
AuthorsStella Pennell (0000-0001-6581-2059, Massey University, corresponding author)
Year2022
Volume58
Issue4
Pages445-461
Publication date2022-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Sociology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1440-7833 • E-ISSN: 1741-2978
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/14407833211000122
OpenAlexW3150263586
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited24

Airbnb is emblematic of a set of business practices commonly known as 'the sharing economy'. It is a disruptive business model of homestay accommodation that has exploited conditions of growing precarity of work since 2008. Work precarity is particularly evident in regional tourist areas in New Zealand, which historically experience seasonal, part-time work and low wages. Airbnb draws specifically on the rhetoric of micro-entrepreneurism, with focus on individual freedom and choice: appealing concepts for those experiencing precarity. This article challenges the rhetoric of Airbnb and investigates notions of home, authenticity and hospitality that are reconceptualized under a specific regime of digital biopolitics. Drawing on research conducted in four regional tourist towns in New Zealand this article analyses the biopolitical interpellations that impact hosts' subjectivities as entities in motion and considers the ways that the rationalities of Airbnb's algorithms modulate the embodied behaviours of its hosts

Accommodation · Biopower · Embodied cognition · Hospitality · Political science · Politics · Precarity · Rhetoric · Sociology · Tourism · Work (physics) · Digital Economy and Work Transformation · Gender Studies · Law · Sexuality, Behavior, and Technology · Sharing Economy and Platforms

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Unique citing works2
Citations per year1
Citation span2024 - 2025 (2)
Citation velocityrecent
Highly citedNo
Citation typesNeutral: 2
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