Platform economy through assemblages. The development of short-term rental markets in Athens, Greece and Berlin, Germany.

Project Information

DweLinks

Grant agreement ID: 895305

DOI

10.3030/895305

Project closed

EC signature date 28 April 2020

Start date 24 October 2020

End date 23 October 2022

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 162 806,40

EU contribution

€ 162 806,40

Coordinated by

TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITAT BERLIN
Germany

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - DweLinks (Platform economy through assemblages. The development of short-term rental markets in Athens, Greece and Berlin, Germany.)

Reporting period: 2020-10-24 to 2022-10-23

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The development of short-term rental (STR) markets through digital platforms is transforming our habit (for example the way we rent a car or an apartment for our holidays) but also our neighborhoods and cities. The EU-funded DweLinks project explored the notions of "sharing" and "collaboration", the resources, as well as new, hybrid labour relations and conditions that are involved in STRs. Focusing on Athens and Berlin, DweLinks conducted an in-depth analysis of STR activities and their articulation within local sites and networks. Results of the project are expected to contribute to a better understanding how temporary and shared socio-economic practices and their digital organization are expressed in post-modern societies. DweLinks’ objective was to explore the qualitative, geographical, and space-transformative characteristics of platform economy, and its development within complex, multi-leveled assemblages, in Athens, Greece and Berlin, Germany. More specifically, the project investigated the ways the emergence and establishment of digitally mediated, short-term renting (STR) markets, take place through i) the mobilisation and ii) the creation of ties and flows, among a variety of actors and networks. DweLinks’ major research hypothesis is that the development and establishment of STR activities is taking place through assemblages that employ, bring together, and mobilize human, material, and symbolic elements: urban and natural resources and assets, labour, knowledge, services, historical meanings, and the notions of ‘sharing’ and ‘collaboration’. Through a qualitative methodology, heavily based upon assemblage thinking approaches, specifically Assemblage and Actor-Network Theories and the in-depth engagement with two study areas in each city, DweLinks i) analysed and delineated the STR markets’ landscape in Athens and Berlin, through the exploration of their networks and actors, extent and limits, hybrid development, practices, role in socio-spatial transformations and differentiations, ii) enriched and informed ‘platform economy’ literature in the fields of urban studies, and social and economic geography, iii) informed policy agendas and regulatory frameworks and formulate policy directions, through the in-depth understanding of the development of the STR activity and its articulation in local sites and networks.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The objectives and milestones of the project have been fully achieved. DweLinks was built around 3 research objectives (ROs):
RO1: Develop an analytical/ conceptual framework that will enable the capture and delineation of PE networks -and their hard to grasp complexity- from a geographical perspective. RO1 was met by i) the conduct of a detailed desktop research on PE and ongoing methodological attempts to grasp its complexity, ii) a cross-reference and synthesis of the aforementioned literature with urban studies and urban geography specific literature focusing on the emergence and operation of urban networks, iii) the building of an analytical, conceptual and methodological framework for the exploration of platform generated networks around STRs, largely informed by Assemblage Theory and Actor-Network Theory.
RO2: Empirically investigate and delineate the emergence of digitally mediated STR economies in Athens and Berlin. Delineation focused on networks’ a) processes of assemblage making, b) attributes and characteristics, c) impact on local economies. RO2 was met by i) the finalization of interview guides and questionnaires, ii) conducting extensive field research and gathering original empirical data through interviews, along with the purchase and processing of databases concerning the total of Airbnb listings in Athens and Berlin from 2014 to 2020, iii) successfully producing a coherent database of empirical material, which provided nuanced, context-sensitive insights on the emergence and operation of the STR market.
RO3: Comparatively analyze a) the emergence of STR networks and b) policy responses and regulatory frameworks in Athens and Berlin, and formulate policy directions, using the empirical findings (RWP 2) on the development of the STR activity and its articulation in local sites and networks. RO3 was met through bringing together the work carried out as part of RO1 and RO2, into the production of new knowledge and the critical analysis of the emergence and everyday operation of the STR market in Athens and Berlin. More specifically, analysis extended beyond issues that predominate recent debates on STRs in urban studies and geography (e.g. impact on rents, role in processes of transnational gentrification) to bring out vastly underexplored dimensions, such as the broader networks involved in the everyday reproduction of the market, modes of labour involved in the operation of STRs and gendered dimensions of labour.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The work carried out in the frame of the project, along with relevant dissemination and communication activities addressed key societal issues, namely the attributes and impact of STRs, in two cities in which this specific topic has attracted substantial public attention and has been brought up as a major issue in public discourse and political debates. The project mostly focused on the ways STRs have affected the local landscapes of housing and labour. Concerning the former, STRs have played a key role in the commodification and financialization of housing and the unfolding of touristification processes. Concerning the latter, the project challenged established understandings of how labour is performed within STR-related activities. Within platform labour debates, digitally-mediated STRs are vastly under-represented as, in many cases, related activities are not considered labour-intensive but, instead, mediators towards providing access to assets. Moreover, STR hosts are classified as privileged actors within the PE. However, the project traced the wide range of workers who undertake essential tasks, the employment statuses, compensations and modes of engagement of workers, restrictions and gender-dimensions, as well as the content and attributes of STR-related work. A key argument deriving from research findings is built around the notion of ‘platform worker’ and the need to expand it beyond workers that are directly related to the platforms, in order to include the on-site labour force upon which the creation and everyday operation of broader platform ecosystems and related infrastructure are depended. Such an expansion will allow valuable insights on the ways PE disrupts and re-organises context-depended, pre-existing modes of labour and economic activities, especially through processes of informalisation. It is crucial that PE is not solely built upon the emergence of new lines of work, but also upon the platformisation of established professions by “transferring” the conditions that prevail in the ‘core’ of platform labour to local labour landscapes: precariousness, temporality, algorithmic management, shadow transactions, mismatch between skills and compensations, lack of social and health insurance, gender-based discriminations are key attributes of the labour performed within STR networks. The aforementioned contributions of DweLinks have profound policy implications that can inform existing and future policy and regulatory frameworks concerning the STR market.

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