Economia da Confiança: sobre a construção dos vínculos sociais no Airbnb e no Couchsurfing

Abstract

The so-called economy of trust has a bearing on the social bonding process which underlies three factors: pair dynamics driven by digital communications technologies; trust building among complete strangers and the agreed-upon perception that there is resource abundance as opposed to resource shortage. Such practices recall the late commonplace borrowing, lending and swapping goods with neighbors, family members and acquaintances which are now extended to strangers even entailing a trust in people one has never seen face-to-face. The basis for starting such unique relationships seems to be lying somewhere in between the core of very basic trading and personal transactions stemming from other group dynamics, i.e. social media. In the light of the foregoing, the goal of this dissertation is to analyze social bond formation processes in the so-called economy of trust practices. This analysis is based upon three aspects each serving a specific purpose: pair dynamics as the method of operation; trust as the control device of the process and abundance as the premise. All analyses are centered on two online hospitality exchange sites: Airbnb and Couchsurfing which offer room and board for a fee and free room and board respectively. The methodological orientation that was followed is inspired by the cartographic method systematized from Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari s works