Call for Papers: Reshaping European cities?
Exploring policies, practices and everyday realities concerning ‛Airbnbification’
Workshop, November 24-25, 2017: University of Salzburg, Austria
Organizers: Angela Hof and Christian Smigiel, Department of Geography and Geology
Digital platforms for urban tourism have not only given much more visibility to urban tourism itself but are also fueling its impact on urban policies, neighbourhoods and everyday lives. Housing rentals, for example through Airbnb, change the relationship between tourists and locals, guests and hosts and add a new dimension to the commodification of residential housing, leading to unanticipated and rapid transformations of entire neighborhoods. It is timely to recognize that urban tourism is useful as a lens to explore broader processes of urban change. In the recent debate, symptoms like increasing housing prices, an increasing focus on the exchange value for an increasing percentage of housing stock driven by digital platforms for short-term rentals are receiving much attention. However, we are convinced that it is time to move beyond the phenomenon of housing rentals and the buzzword sharing economy and to address the combination of urban politics, urban tourism and everyday (urban) realities that are reshaping and reshaped by this specific aspect of urban tourism. The digital platform is the interface between agents that barter for residential accommodation that has previously not been traded as a tourist commodity. These aspects have received relatively little systematic attention and analysis. We are missing comparative perspectives (e.g. cross-city comparison), in-depth studies on Airbnb and gentrification, displacement, and agency across social groups that engage and are affected by increasing Airbnb rental activities.
Topics:
- Cities, urban politics and housing rentals / Airbnb
- Gentrification, neighbourhood change and housing rentals / Airbnb
- Everyday urban realities – between commodification, micro-entrepreneurship and resistance
Please send a short abstract of no more than 200 words and an abstract of 500 words to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. by no later than June 30th, 2017. We envisage a workshop fee of €20.
Keynote speakers:
- Johannes Novy (Cardiff University/Spatial Planning)
- Felix Holzmannhofer (City of Salzburg/Department for building regulation)
- Jonas Parnow (Information designer and data visualist, Berlin)
To see the workshop's timetable, please click here. Please notice as well the call for papers.