Nina A. Medvedeva

NINA MEDVADEVA, then a graduate student at University of Minnesota, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota, was awarded a grant in October 2019 to aid research on ‘Home and the Sharing Economy: An Ethnography of Displacement in D.C. and San Francisco,’ supervised by Dr. Aren Zachary Aizura. Debates about short-term rentals (STRs) such as Airbnb have exploded in San Francisco and Washington, D.C ‘ two of the United States’ largest STR markets. STRs monetize the home in particular ways, but this monetization is not simply normalized; rather it is contested. This project focuses on that contestation through STR regulatory activism since 2010. Combining eighteen months of participant observation, media analysis, archival research, and fifty-four interviews with STR hosts, government officials, and activists, the grantee argues that residents’ visions of economic justice are inextricably tied to broader systems of race, gender, and property under capitalism. Findings include: 1) that STR coalitions in favor and against STR regulations were subdivided into formal organizations, individual actors who might join formal organizations, and government entities; 2) that race, gender, and space played key roles in how actors came out in favor or against regulations; and 3) STRs became a political entity through years of grassroots agitation.