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Platform economies and urban planning: Airbnb and regulated deregulation in London

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  • Sanyal, Romola
  • Ferreri, Mara

Abstract

The ‘sharing economy’ has become a new buzzword in urban life as digital technology companies set up online platforms to link together people and un- or underutilised assets with those seeking to rent them for short periods of time. While cloaked under the rhetoric of ‘sharing’, the exchanges they foster are usually profit-driven. These economic activities are having profound impacts on urban environments as they disrupt traditional forms of hospitality, transport, service industry and housing. While critical debates have focused on the challenges that sharing economy activities bring to existing labour and economic practices, it is necessary to acknowledge that they also have increasingly significant impacts on planning policy and urban governance. Using the case of Airbnb in London, this article looks at how these sharing or platform economy companies are involved in encouraging governments to change existing regulations, in this case by deregulating short-term letting. This has important implications for planning enforcement. We examine how the challenges around obtaining data to enforce new regulations are being addressed by local councils who struggle to balance corporate interests with public good. Finally, we address proposals for using algorithms and big data as means of urban governance and argue that the schism between regulation and enforcement is opening up new digitally mediated spaces of informal practices in cities.

Suggested Citation

  • Sanyal, Romola & Ferreri, Mara, 2018. "Platform economies and urban planning: Airbnb and regulated deregulation in London," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 87473, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
  • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:87473
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    File URL: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/87473/
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Agustín Cócola Gant, 2016. "Holiday Rentals: The New Gentrification Battlefront," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 21(3), pages 112-120, August.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    data; governance; housing; planning; sharing economy; technology/smart cities;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J1 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics
    • L81 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Retail and Wholesale Trade; e-Commerce

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