Juliet Schor #712

This is a deep and provocative conversation with best-selling author and economist Juliet Schor (find her on Twitter!) on what is currently unfolding in this country economically. We also discuss the pandemic, the election, and other areas of interconnection during this remarkable time of national transformation and upheaval.

Juliet B. Schor is the best-selling author of The Overworked American, The Overspent American, and Plenitude. Her most recent work is After the Gig. She is currently Professor of Sociology at Boston College. Before joining Boston College she taught in the Department of Economics at Harvard University. Schor is an internationally known scholar of labor, consumption, and environment. She is a former Guggenheim and Radcliffe Institute Fellow, recipient of the Leontief Prize in Economics, and the Public Understanding of Sociology Award from the American Sociology Association. She is the Chair of the Board of the Better Future Project.

In all of her books, including The Overworked American, The Overspent American, and Plenitude, New York Times-bestselling author Juliet Schor has offered groundbreaking insights into the intersection of work, life, and consumer culture. When the “sharing economy” launched a decade ago, proponents claimed that it would transform the experience of work—giving earners flexibility, autonomy, and a decent income. It was touted as a cure for social isolation and rampant ecological degradation. But this novel form of gig work soon sprouted a dark side: exploited Uber drivers, neighborhoods ruined by Airbnb, racial discrimination and rising carbon emissions. Several of the most prominent platforms are now faced with existential crises as they prioritize growth over fairness and long term viability.

Nevertheless, the basic model—a peer-to-peer structure augmented by digital tech—holds the potential to meet its original promises. Based on nearly a decade of pioneering research, After the Gig dives into what went wrong along the way to this contemporary reimagining of labor. The book examines multiple types of data from thirteen cases to identify the unique features and potential of sharing platforms that prior research has failed to identify. Juliet Schor presents a compelling case that we can engineer a reboot: through regulatory reforms and cooperative platforms owned and controlled by users, an equitable and actual sharing economy is still possible.
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