How Platform Exchange and Safeguards Matter: The Case of Sexual Risk in Airbnb and Couchsurfing

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1. Verfasser: Wang, Skyler
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2024
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author Wang, Skyler
author_facet Wang, Skyler
contents Recent work in CHI and CSCW has devoted increasing attention to how the design of network hospitality platforms shapes user experiences and relational outcomes. In this article, I interrogate how different risk factors emerge based on the type of exchanges these platforms facilitate. To do so, I juxtapose two prominent network hospitality platforms: one facilitating negotiated exchange (i.e., Airbnb) with another facilitating reciprocal exchange (i.e., Couchsurfing). Homing in on sexual risk, an underexplored form of platform danger, and drawing on interviews with 40 female dual-platform users, I argue that Airbnb's provision of binding negotiated exchange and institutional safeguards reduces risk through three mechanisms: casting initial guest-host relation into a buyer-seller arrangement, stabilizing interactional scripts, and formalizing sexual violence recourse. Conversely, Couchsurfing's focus on reciprocal exchange and lack of safeguards increase sexual precarity for users both on- and off-platform. This study demonstrates how platforms with strong prosocial motivations can jeopardize sociality and concludes with design implications for protecting vulnerable user populations.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2402_18705
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle How Platform Exchange and Safeguards Matter: The Case of Sexual Risk in Airbnb and Couchsurfing
Wang, Skyler
Human-Computer Interaction
Computers and Society
Recent work in CHI and CSCW has devoted increasing attention to how the design of network hospitality platforms shapes user experiences and relational outcomes. In this article, I interrogate how different risk factors emerge based on the type of exchanges these platforms facilitate. To do so, I juxtapose two prominent network hospitality platforms: one facilitating negotiated exchange (i.e., Airbnb) with another facilitating reciprocal exchange (i.e., Couchsurfing). Homing in on sexual risk, an underexplored form of platform danger, and drawing on interviews with 40 female dual-platform users, I argue that Airbnb's provision of binding negotiated exchange and institutional safeguards reduces risk through three mechanisms: casting initial guest-host relation into a buyer-seller arrangement, stabilizing interactional scripts, and formalizing sexual violence recourse. Conversely, Couchsurfing's focus on reciprocal exchange and lack of safeguards increase sexual precarity for users both on- and off-platform. This study demonstrates how platforms with strong prosocial motivations can jeopardize sociality and concludes with design implications for protecting vulnerable user populations.
title How Platform Exchange and Safeguards Matter: The Case of Sexual Risk in Airbnb and Couchsurfing
topic Human-Computer Interaction
Computers and Society
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.18705