Couchusurfing

Annals of Tourism Research, Vol. 43, pp. 210–230, 2013
0160-7383/$ - see front matter Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Printed in Great Britain

www.elsevier.com/locate/atoures

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2013.08.001

SOCIAL NETWORKING
TECHNOLOGIES AND THE MORAL
ECONOMY OF ALTERNATIVE
TOURISM: THE CASE OF
COUCHSURFING.ORG
Jennie Germann Molz
Department of Sociology and Anthropology, College of the Holy
Cross, USA

Abstract: The purpose of this study is to examine the role social networking technologies play in the moral economy of alternative tourism. The study takes as its empirical focus the online hospitality exchange network Couchsurfing. Using the concept of ‘moral affordances’, the analysis outlines the way Couchsurfing’s technical systems, software design, and search algorithms enable participants to engage in a moral economy based on the non-commodified provision of accommodation to strangers and personal relations of trust and intimacy. Findings suggest that these affordances are not isolated effects of the technologies themselves, but rather reflect a broader moral landscape in which alternative tourism is performed. Keywords: alternative tourism, Couchsurfing, moral affordances, moral economy, sharing economy, social networking technologies. Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

INTRODUCTION
The moral and ethical dimensions of mass tourism and its alternatives have long been a central theme in tourism studies. Early discussions of modern tourism, from Boorstin’s (1961) condemnation of
‘tourist bubbles’ to Turner and Ash’s (1975) depiction of ‘golden hordes’ of tourists pushing against the ‘pleasure periphery’, drew attention to the morally questionable effects of a jet-fuelled, pleasure-peddling tourism industry. Ever since, critics have lamented the social, environmental and economic consequences of modern tourism

Jennie Germann Molz (Department of Sociology and Anthropology; College of the Holy
Cross; 1 College Street; Worcester,

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