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Aurimas Pumputis.

Aurimas Pumputis

Teaching staff

Aurimas Pumputis.

Mutual surveillance on Airbnb

Author

  • Stefan Gössling
  • Mia Larson
  • Aurimas Pumputis

Summary, in English

Digital technology affords new means of controlling and managing. The platform economy relies on complex surveillance techniques to analyze, control, and manipulate on the basis of reviews, evaluations, and other volunteered data. This paper conceptualizes mechanisms of surveillance, with a focus on Airbnb. It sets out with a discussion of trust and reputation-building to then analyze the mechanisms employed to control guests and accommodation providers. Findings suggest that communication techniques, technological tools, services, and policies form a surveillant assemblage. Mutual evaluations are engineered as mechanisms supportive of trust. The article contributes to the discussion of emerging complexities of these forms of control, in tourism and for society more generally.

Department/s

  • Department of Service Studies

Publishing year

2021-11

Language

English

Publication/Series

Annals of Tourism Research

Volume

91

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Pergamon Press Ltd.

Topic

  • Business Administration

Keywords

  • Airbnb
  • Online reviews
  • Reputation
  • Sharing platforms
  • Surveillance
  • Trust

Status

Published

Project

  • Trust and control on peer-to-peer platforms: A sociomaterial analysis of guest-host relationships in digital environments

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 0160-7383