The tourism production mediated by the Airbnb platform: proposal of a tool/software for the collection of empirical data and introductory theorizations

Abstract

The study focuses on the Airbnb corporation - a platform for short-term property rentals - both in its activities in the colonial city of Ouro Preto, as well as on a global scale. This approach is part of a reflection on broader processes related to productive and reproductive logic in the historical time of flexible accumulation (Harvey, 1992), increasingly carried out through technoscientific and informational means. Two objectives were set: to develop a tool/software for the collection of empirical data (which was used experimentally in the aforementioned location); and to theorize the processes of added-value in the context of "platform capitalism" (Srnicek, 2016), considering new formats of labor subsumption to capital. The techniques for obtaining data and information adopted were documentary and bibliographical research, as well as the referred software for collecting the actual number of registered properties in Ouro Preto. Based on the investigation, it was possible to expose some of the platform's mediations in the context of production and consumption, as well as to make considerations about contradictory socio-spatial consequences promoted by it.

Keywords
Airbnb; Platform capitalism; Productive labor; Tourism