Myths of the Collaborative Economy. Ideology and Short-Term Rentals in Andalusia

The development of digital platforms has made short-term rentals a key issue in current urban policy. This paper examines the discourses of different actors in the short-term rental market and the legal documents that regulate it from the perspective of ideology theory. In this context, ideology is a set of practices and discourses aimed at legitimizing the appropriation of growing shares of urban rents. The fieldwork to support this idea is based on interviews with short-term rental owners and managers in five Andalusian cities and the analysis of documents, reports, plans, and legal documents produced by the public administration relating to regulating this type of business. The research identifies various interests surrounding the issue and shows the complementarity between pro-market and collaborative economy discourses.