The document discusses the emergence and implications of the sharing economy, focusing on its disruptive potential to redefine work, ownership, and economic relationships. It highlights the challenges posed by traditional definitions of work, particularly for women and marginalized groups, while also addressing the need for further interdisciplinary research to understand its socio-economic impacts. Key themes include the balance of work-life dynamics, gendered labor market implications, and the societal consequences of collaborative consumption.

1. Work-Life and Labour in the
‘Sharing Economy’:
Comments on an emerging (yet strangely
familiar?) research agenda
Al James
a.james@qmul.ac.uk
4th
Global EconGeog Conference
Oxford, 20 August 2015

2. The Rise of the ‘Sharing Economy’
(and its Chaotic Conception)
 New disruptive economic model: access
over ownership
 ‘Sharing Economy’ / ‘Collaborative
Commons’ / ‘Peer to Peer Economy
 Making money from what we own which
goes unused for some of the time
 Sharing human and physical assets,
everything from cars and bicycles to
housing, workplaces, food, household
items, time or expertise
 Suppliers = “hosts”, members of a
“community”, or “partners”
 Multiple circuits: gift giving, exchange,
semi-profit, pure profit, redistribution,
sharing (Rifkin 2014)

3. Celebrating the ‘Sharing Economy’:
Capitalism is dead: The dawn of a new era
(Rifkin, 2014)
‘The optimally efficient state for promoting the general
welfare and represents the ultimate triumph of
capitalism’ (p. 10-11)
Third Industrial Revolution – Internet reduces marginal
cost of production almost to zero (eliminates virtually
all middlemen mark up)
From economy of scarcity to abundance
Unbundling of production from employment
Reduced social inequality
‘Old paradigm of owners and workers, of sellers and
consumers, is beginning to break down.’ (p. 160-1).
New class of ‘prosumers’
Emphasis on quality of life alongside quantity of
economic output. ‘a more humane and efficient
capitalist market’ (p. 27).

4. ‘Sharing Economy’ as means for
challenging ‘the problem with work’ and
‘getting a life’? (Weeks 2011)
‘Why do we work so long and so hard? The mystery
here is … that there is not much active resistance to
this state of affairs. The problems with work today
[include]… overwork that often characterizes even the
most privileged forms of employment’ (Weeks 2011: 1).
Waged work remains centerpiece of late capitalist
economic systems
C.f. feminist reconceptualizations of ‘work’; and
‘postwork ethic’ (exploring new possibilities for
creating time and money necessary for a life outside
work)
See also: ‘the time bind’ (Hochschild 1997), ‘time
famine’ (Perlow 1999), ‘time scarcity’ (Negrey 2012) and
‘overwork’ (Bunting 2005)

5. ‘WHO COULD BE OPPOSED TO THE IDEA OF
COLLABORATIVE CONSUMPTION AND A
SHARING ECONOMY?’ (Rifkin 2014: 289)
Limited commentary from labour geographers
so far…
•To what extent does “sharing work” have an
empowering, liberating effect at a time when
more and more people find it increasingly
difficult to meet the demands of more formal,
traditional work environments?
•In what ways are sharing economies
segmented by gender? Does digital work
disrupt, or reinforce, categories of social
difference and the way they shape the
distribution of productive and reproductive
work?
•What are the societal consequences of the new
world of collaborative production and
consumption?

6. Unpacking prosumer experiences of
work-life in the sharing economy
 Press celebration of female entrepreneurship
 Sharing economy labour market, gendered segmentation?
 Working longer and harder? on Amabots, Amholes and portfolio precarity
 Tackling WLB symptoms or root cause?
 "Do you feel safe?" "Isn't this sketchy?" "Isn't it creepy?" "Aren't you ever
scared?" "If you were my sister, I wouldn't let you do this" "I think you
should carry a gun." "I wouldn't want strangers to my back all the time if I
were you." These are just some of the comments I get being a young female
driver. I've thought about recording all the comments/questions and making
a dance remix. MarieDriver, Feb 26, 2015 (uberpeople.net - uber drivers forum)
 ‘Lyft, for months, has been the only job I have been able to hang onto, having
been laid off from my other (part time) position late last year. Night after night
I have been behind the wheel trying to break even. So, it's been just Lyft for
months and months and months, and all of what I make goes right back into
bills, with a little bit going in my gas tank. I’m working my ass off’. (Lyft Driver,
Colorado Springs, Sat 16 August 2015)

7. Redistribution of productive /
reproductive divisions of work in the
sharing economy?
 Limited commentary – e.g. press accounts sharing economy
allows parents to trade baby clothes that are too small, and
to share the cost of nannies: e.g. Rent That Toy!, ThredUP
 FORBES (2015) interview with founder and CEO of
Moonlighting (Jeff Tennery):
 “Mobile Optimized Mothers, or as we call them M.O.M’s, are
fueling the new 1099 shared economy. Women are
empowering themselves, choosing to work from home and
earn a living on their terms. We’re very honored to help them
on their mission to achieve that balance between career and
life.”
 HOWEVER – home working does not necessarily make for
an improved WLB (double edged sword, and need for
childcare to enable)
 Perpetuates dominant WLB focus on how to enable greater
flexibility of work for women with assumed majority
responsibility for childcare (c.f. increased male care?)

9. Reconfigured labour geographies of
‘prosumer’ agency in the sharing economy?
Towards a (strangely familiar) research agenda
 Making visible / tackling structures of gendered
labour market inequality
 WLB and freelancers / contactors: juggling work,
home and family
 Subcontracted capitalism & challenges to collective
organizing
 Prosumer class divisions and a reworked LETS
agenda?
 Geographical limits of economic transition models
 Researching the sharing economy demands a
more interdisciplinary human geography –
‘sharing economy’ literatures by another name
in Devt Geog?

11. Organizer/Chair:
Jim Murphy
Panelists:
Martin Hess, Al James,
Emma Mawdsley, Stefan Ouma,
Jessie Poon, Sue Roberts
4th
Global EconGeog Conference
Oxford, 20 August 2015
Economic Geographies
in/for/of Development:
Critical Reflections

12. Starters for Ten…
1. Where have economic geographers recently made the
greatest strides with regards to their engagement with
contemporary theories, concepts, issues, and/or policies
related to development and its geographies and spatialities?
Identify one strength only.
2. What critical gaps remain with respect to point 1, and where
do you see promising signs that these can or might be
addressed in the coming years; if you see such signs?
Identify one gap or significant weakness.
3. Given the interdisciplinary nature of development studies,
broadly considered, where do you see promising trading
zones or intersections with the work of economic
geographers, or areas of development studies that
economic geographers should strive to engage more
directly with in order address some of the concerns laid out
in the abstract? Identify one intersection or trading zone.
4. Provoke us! If you can, please offer one provocation to the
audience and the other panelists that relates to the links
between economic geography(ers) and development issues.