Public, private, and the appeal to common good: Practices of justification in a peer-to-peer economy

Abstract

Relations between public and private are implicit within much of everyday life, yet public/private distinctions are often invoked when there is a need to justify or critique a set of social arrangements. This paper attends to such moments, demonstrating how practices of justification provide insights into the values and reasoning through which different forms of collective life are negotiated and managed. It does so through a theoretically pragmatist approach that responds to recent calls for researchers to engage more closely with ordinary forms of normativity and builds on an emerging geographical interest in everyday talk. The case study in focus is a popular yet illegal food trend in New York City where established and aspiring chefs welcome strangers into their homes for a meal in exchange for payment. Underground restaurants and secret supper clubs, as these events are known, fit within a much broader trend of peer-to-peer “sharing economy” business models that open up resources and relations normally considered private to a provisionally public audience. Often celebrated for facilitating cooperation, efficiency, and empowerment, they can also be deeply unsettling to existing social and economic orders. Participation in, and governance of, peer-to-peer activities demands navigating tensions between freedom and collective obligation, managing risk, establishing trust, and delegating responsibility when problems arise. Our capacity as geographers to analyse and weigh in on these issues can be enhanced by attending to the justifications through which public, private, and other concepts for organising collective life are being upheld, transgressed, or actively transformed.