We accept: the constitution of Airbnb

This paper investigates the transformation of Airbnb as a platform for a more general reflection on the technological and technical constitution of domains, political platforms, and subjectivities. Part I explores the various (juridical and digital) technologies and techniques employed by the service provider to ‘fight discrimination and bias’, as well as to encode a world where everyone can ‘Belong Anywhere’. Part II draws on social systems theory and Gunther Teubner’s societal constitutionalism, rethinking the processes analysed in Part I in terms of auto-constitutionalisation. The auto-constitutionalisation of Airbnb, Part III suggests, instantiates the emergence of a new grammar of political action, epitomised by the Airbnb Terms of Service agreement, and a new generalisable mode of subjectivation: the standard formation of subjects.