Short-term Rentals and Housing Protection - A discourse-analytical Investigation of Digital Crowd Phenomena Regulation in Spatial Planning

• Applicants: Dr. Vilim Brezina; Dr. Michael Kolocek; Professor Dr.-Ing. Jan Polivka
• Subject Area: City Planning, Spatial Planning, Transportation and Infrastructure Planning, Landscape Planning
• Term: since 2025
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 551282876

The aim of the project "Short-term rentals and housing protection - A discourse-analytical investigation of the regulation of digital crowd phenomena in spatial planning" is to systematically analyse the discourse on short-term rentals and housing protection. The project examines how planning instruments are renegotiated, communicated, and developed with the emergence of digital crowd phenomena. Using Airbnb as an example, the focus is on existing legal planning instruments (in particular the ban on housing misappropriation - the so-called 'Zweckentfremdungsverbot'). The debate on the bans on housing misappropriation is not without conflicts and leads to different outcomes, as the discourse is conducted with partly diverging interests. A total of six municipalities, ranging from small towns to large cities located in different German federal states, were selected for the study. For the first time, the systematic analysis of the different levels of discourse and participants and their connection with the regulatory decisions made will provide new insights into the planning approach to spatial swarm phenomena.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants