Sharing Property Sharing Labour: The Co-Production of Value in Platform Economies

Abstract

The recent meteoric rise of innovative companies in the sharing economy has divided commentators and regulators alike on the question of their socio-economic impact. Do these economic activities herald an equitable and sustainable alternative to existing practices, or are they simply expanding commercial exploitation into greater areas of life? This dichotomy overlooks how these economic activities constitute new assemblages of labour and property, and shape the flow of value amongst their participants. I propose a conceptual mechanism of ‘labour-service’, whereby labour and value flow through webs of material objects, as a way of examining how organic collaboration is first structured by the laws of property, and then by the dynamics of nascent platform economies. Tracing labour-service through the sharing economy renders a clearer view of the factors that drive collaboration and exploitation, and hopefully can contribute towards more efficacious regulatory measures and advance academic commentary on this emerging phenomenon.