Lending that Pays. The Paradoxes of the Collaborative Economy

The “collaborative economy” movement has become increasingly popular since 2011. The companies spawned by this movement offer their users an ambiguous framework of interaction supported by a dual discourse that combines marketing and selflessness. Based on the example of Airbnb, a website through which over 25 million private individuals have rented a flat, this article describes users’ work to maintain this subtle definition of the situation required by commercial hospitality. The proposed analysis is based on interviews with Airbnb “hosts”, and draws on the Goffmanian framework to explain their relational work.