A house is not a home: The politics of short-term rentals regulation in San Francisco, Airbnb’s hometown

Keywords: short-term rentals, Airbnb, platform placemaking, platform governance, platform politics, regulation conflict
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Tuesday
Session Start / End Time: 3/1/2022 05:20 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 3/1/2022 06:40 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 9

Abstract

This paper traces the dynamics of short-term rental regulation at the heart of Silicon Valley – in San Francisco. The city has become home of many platform companies, driving the influx of new residents. Together with the financial crisis, this has exacerbated its housing crisis (Caldararo, 2017; McNee & Pojani, 2021). In turn, some residents started using Airbnb to capitalize on their homes so as not to get priced out of the city, arguably further contributing to the problem.

The rise of short-term rentals (STRs) in San Francisco has led to the emerge of new constellations of political actors interested in enabling or curbing STRs. Based on fieldwork conducted in 2016-17, I trace the history of the regulation conflict and the shifting power balances between the pro- and anti-Airbnb coalitions. I discuss ‘old’ and ‘new’ political tactics deployed by both sides (e.g. lobbying and using scraped data) and the tension between platform governance tools deployed by Airbnb and the legalistic logics of the City. I offer insights on the remaking of urban space in the networks of micro-level politics, in which various powerful macro-level actors become involved.

The paper deploys an understanding of platforms as ecological phenomena, tracing their effects on the contexts in which they operate in terms of circular dynamics of intensification and adaptation (Bateson, 1972; Mikołajewska-Zając et al., 2021). It also taps into Weberian political economy, arguing that urban space under capitalism is the creation of activists pushing to alter how markets function (Logan & Moloch, 1989).