In Thebault-Spieker et al.’s (2015) article they analyze the site and situation attributes of each census tract to get a better idea of the qualitative factors influencing crowdworkers decisions. They found that perceived safety and distance from starting location/accessibility both where the representative site and situation attributes.
This got me thinking about the site and situation attributes we might find in other sharing economy development that are not necessarily crowd sourcing, take Airbnb for example. Some site attributes I can think of for Airbnb, off the top of my head, are cost, safety, and quality (whole house/vs room in apt). Situation attributes may be connectivity to tourist attractions (via streets and public transit) or specific neighborhoods. It would be interesting to see what attribute was more important to people selecting houses to stay in. As a young female with little disposable income, I would characterize location second to cost (unless it seemed really worth it).
Generally I wonder what attributes are deemed most important by users across the various sharing-economy platforms. Thebault-Spieker et al. addresses some implications their findings may have on UberX drivers, mainly the idea of a service desert (comparable to a food desert but for sharing economy services) (2015). Extrapolating this to the slightly different platform of Airbnb, I wonder if there is a service desert in lower SES neighborhoods. I would predict that there are less so than in this TaskRabbit study simply on the assumption that lower income families also may wish to travel and Airbnb could aid in making this more affordable. And it seems there do exist a number of Airbnb’s in the ‘ghettos’ of Chicago. Lastly, I acknowledge that I am making a sweeping statement of the southwest region as most people do, however, I do share some of the views of the female respondents in this study as a Northern Chicagoan.
The stereotypical danger zones are bound more or less by the 294
-BannerGrey