Knowledge eclipse: producing sociomaterial reconfigurations in the hospitality sector

Drawing on a field study of the travel site TripAdvisor, the authors explore how online reviewing, rating, and ranking mechanisms are overshadowing traditional configurations of knowledge in the hospitality sector by redistributing resources, shifting practices and habitats, and redefining what counts, who counts, and how. The authors suggest that such sociomaterial reconfigurations offer important insights into the broader issues associated with the role of social media in knowledge practices, and the ways in which expert valuation schemes are being eclipsed by ones grounded in user-generated content. They maintain that these different valuation schemes entail different kinds of work, producing different valuations of the real, and enacting different (singular and multiple) realities. As such, these reconfigurations of valuation raise not just important epistemological issues but also critical questions of ontology and accountability.