ABSTRACT

The Swedish island of Gotland in the Baltic Sea is a well-known tourist destination, visited annually by almost 2 million tourists. Among the different types of accommodation available to visitors, Bed and Breakfast (B&B) on the Airbnb platform have become very popular. This exploratory study discusses how the human capital of some B&B lifestyle entrepreneurs affects their plans and practices of sustainability. Human capital theory (Becker, G. (1964). Human Capital. The University of Chicago Press.) is discussed by intersecting it with a sociological perspective represented by the two main Bordieuan forms of capital, namely cultural and social capital (1986 and 1992). The research is based on data collected between June 2017 and October 2020 through semi-structured interviews and field observation of fourteen rural B&B lifestyle entrepreneurs listed on Airbnb. Results show that participants’ cultural capital is high and constantly developing through the acquisition of new knowledge on sustainable measures that can be applied to their businesses. Their current social capital in Gotland, on the other hand, is still quite underdeveloped.

摘要

位于波罗的海的瑞典哥特兰岛是一个著名的旅游目的地，每年有近 200 万游客到访。在可供游客选择的不同类型的住宿中，Airbnb 平台上的住宿加早餐 (B&B) 非常受欢迎。这项探索性研究讨论了一些 B&B 生活方式企业家的人力资本如何影响他们的可持续发展计划和实践。人力资本理论 (Becker, G. (1964).人力资本. 芝加哥大学出版社。）通过将其与以两种主要的波尔迪厄资本形式，即文化资本和社会资本（1986 年和 1992 年）为代表的社会学视角相结合来进行讨论。该研究基于 2017 年 6 月至 2020 年 10 月期间通过半结构化访谈和实地观察收集的数据，这些数据是对 Airbnb 上市的 14 位农村 B&B 生活方式企业家进行的。结果表明，参与者的文化资本很高，并且通过获得可应用于其业务的可持续措施的新知识而不断发展。另一方面，他们目前在哥特兰岛的社会资本仍然很不发达。