How Share “Private Spaces”: The Cultural Construction of Shared Accommodation Markets

Abstract

With the popularization and application of mobile Internet technology, the sharing economy has developed rapidly all over the world since 2008. As the extension of the sharing economy in the accommodation field, shared accommodation has also grown rapidly, and it has occupied an increasingly important position in China’s tourist accommodation economy. As to why “private space” is shared, existing research mainly analyzes it from economic, perceptual, social, enjoyment and sustainability motivations but lacks an in-depth analysis from a cultural perspective. Among the few studies on culture and shared accommodation, western research has focused on the impact of sustainable, anti-consumerist and collectivism values on the motivations for participation in shared accommodation, while Chinese studies have focused more on the influence of culture on the marketing strategies, architectural design and industrial development of shared accommodation. It is evident that the current studies lack an explanation of the Chinese culture that motivates participation in shared accommodation.

In view of this, this study investigates the construction of China’s shared accommodation market by traditional Chinese culture through participant observation and in-depth interviews with 63 hosts (suppliers) and 45 guests (demanders) from 2019 to 2021 and proposes a “cultural-relational” market analytical framework based on Zelizer’s cultural approach to the economy. This study finds that China’s shared accommodation market is not only a resistance to the negative consequences of modern western culture, but also an adaptation to traditional Chinese culture. In the context of the traditional Chinese culture of “harmony”, some Chinese people have been inspired by the changes in their personal experiences, social and natural environments to self-reflect on the harmony culture and realize their strong need for harmonious relationships, which has driven them to enter the shared accommodation market.Traditional Chinese culture, with “harmony” as the core element, affects the commercial sharing of private living space. What hosts and guests share and purchase is not only the idle accommodation space, but also the construction of a “quasi-intimate relationship” under the values of “harmony between others and oneself”, the creation of “natural” space under the values of “harmony between nature and man” and the self-cultivation and self-redemption under the values of “harmony between body and mind”.The money earned and spent by hosts and guests is not a non-social “pure money”, but a harmonious intimacy between people and society, nature and themselves, with a shared meaning of harmony culture.

Unlike western shared accommodation, participants in Chinese shared accommodation are not just looking for ordinary commercial friendships, but more quasi-intimate relationships in which people live in harmony with others; the sustainability of Chinese shared accommodation is not only expressed in the sharing and reuse of unused space, but mainly in the natural and environmentally friendly building renovation process in which people live in harmony with nature; the motivation for participation in Chinese shared accommodation is not only the desire to make authentic lifestyle choices but also the inner transcendence and self-reinvention in which people live in harmony with themselves. The traditional Chinese culture of harmony has regulated and shaped China’s shared accommodation market through the harmonious construction of social, natural, and physical-mental relationships. Moreover, a new shared accommodation culture has been generated in the formation ofa shared accommodation market, including the spirit of equality and mutual assistance, iithe concept of “small and beautiful”, and the new age culture of seclusion, which has also enabled the further development of the shared accommodation market. In addition, the development of the shared accommodation market in China has also to some extent contributed to the revival of the traditional Chinese harmony culture.

Therefore, economic transactions are embedded in intimate and private accommodation spaces. The traditional Chinese culture of harmony has shaped the shared accommodation market through a triple harmonious intimacy, and the economic practice of accommodation sharing has constructed a new shared accommodation culture and is contributing to the revival of traditional culture. So, in the Chinese context of shared accommodation, culture and market are interconnected and mutually constructed. There are monetary transactions in intimate relationships, and economic practices are socialized markets with culturally shared meanings. It is essential to note that this study only analyzes the market from a cultural and relational perspective, and it does not imply that cultural and relational factors are the only ones that influence the market.

The findings of this study are not only useful for participants and policymakers in the practice, but they also theoretically complement cultural studies of the motivations for shared accommodation participation in China and the West, especially bridging the research on the traditional Chinese cultural construction of the shared accommodation market. Furthermore, this study extends Zelizer’s cultural approach to the economy, advances the theory of money and intimacy, develops the view of “connected lives”, expands its Chinese and Internet-era application contexts, and goes somewhat beyond the sacred sphere on which Zelizer has focused. Finally, this study analyzes the shared accommodation market in China from a “cultural-relational” perspective, which enriches the cultural approach to market research in Chinese economic sociology.

Date of Award	14 Jul 2023
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	City University of Hong Kong
Supervisor	Maofu Wang (External Supervisor) & Yuk Ha Eileen TSANG (Supervisor)