Luck and leaps of faith

How the digital informal economy transforms the geographies of shared renting in Australia

Datos Bibliográficos

ID3978338
AutoresSharon Parkinson (0000-0001-9470-6239, Centre for Urban Transitions, Swinburne University, Hawthorn, Australia, autor de correspondencia), Amity James (0000-0002-2110-6037, Curtin University), Enquing Liu (0000-0003-2839-0875, UNSW Sydney)
Año2021
Volumen22
Número9
Páginas1274-1290
Fecha de publicación2021-11-22
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaSocial & Cultural Geography (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1464-9365 • E-ISSN: 1470-1197
EditorialInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/14649365.2020.1723134
OpenAlexW3003512147
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas16
Referencias citadas35

Shared rental housing has long been one of the few affordable options available to low-income urban singles. Gaining access to a share rental dwelling has historically relied on ‘low tech’ communications such as noticeboards and classifieds, in relatively localised spatial areas. With the global proliferation of digitally mediated peer-to-peer platforms, the geographical reach of shared renting, including the opportunity for living with strangers, has expanded. Amidst declining affordability and growing precarity, the enhanced spatial flows and connectivity of peer-to-peer platforms provide a direct yet informal route into rental housing. In these informal spaces, singles rely on networks of ‘distributed’ rather than ‘institutional’ trust associated with formal rental arrangements. Drawing on interviews with urban singles in Australia, this paper explores the everyday informal practices of forming networks for shared access, negotiating the living agreement, creating a home and becoming an expert in the digitally mediated spaces of the shared rental household. The everyday informal practices of ‘distributed trust’ sheds new light on the spatially contingent ‘trust cultures’ emerging in shared renting. Despite narratives of a movement towards the more collaborative consumption of a sharing economy, enduring informal practices of opportunists and entrepreneurs that erode trust and a sense of home persist

Business · Economic growth · Economics · Luck · Negotiation · Political science · Precarity · Renting · Sharing economy · Social science · Sociology · Digital Economy and Work Transformation · Gender Studies · Housing, Finance, and Neoliberalism · Law · Sharing Economy and Platforms