[LUM#2] Towards the Uberization of society?

[LUM Magazine] - Published on May 10, 2016 in Science-Society

Digital technology is indeed changing your daily life. But perhaps not in the way you imagined. Welcome to a world whose contours are still unclear: that of the collaborative economy.

5:00 p.m. In a few minutes, it will be time to leave the office. But your workday is far from over. Around the corner, an alert on your smartphone informs you that two high school students are waiting for you at the next traffic light for an express carpool, organized on the fly via a geolocation-based networking platform. Back home, you check your AirBnB account: your daughter's room, who is on vacation abroad, has found a taker for the next night. 8:30 p.m. Before collapsing onto your monthly rental sofa, you check the details of your morning rounds one last time, which will take you to the homes of three of your neighbors who have been tempted by the beef bourguignon simmering quietly in your kitchen.

Free sharing and business acumen

Driven by the explosion of mobile internet, the widespread adoption of digital technology is paving the way for new forms of interpersonal relationships. The result is a fundamentally flexible society, made up of hybrid citizens who are both consumers and producers, employees and freelancers. Uber is the symbol of this new reality. In just a few years, the Silicon Valley start-up has become the standard-bearer for these new giants, skillfully combining the ideology of free sharing with a formidable business sense. After positioning itself as a link between drivers and individuals, Uber now aims to extend this principle to the entire galaxy of services. What does Uber do? It anticipates and maps needs and turns everyone into a potential customer or employee. More than a service, it is a model for society, to the point that some people no longer hesitate to talk about a veritable "uberization."

A professor at the Faculty of Economics and a keen observer of the emergence of this so-called collaborative economy, Michel Garrabé urges caution when using this catch-all term, which tends to encompass two diametrically opposed models: " We must clearly distinguish between, on the one hand, a truly collaborative, non-market economy, such as Wikipedia, which is designed as a place where people organize themselves to create a common good, and, on the other hand, traditional market economy companies, such as Uber or Airbnb, which have shareholders and aim to maximize their profits , " explains this specialist in social economics.

Nomadic and horizontal

In the wake of Uber, Airbnb, and France's BlaBlaCar, countless start-ups are riding the wave of a nomadic, horizontal economy that tends to replace the notion of ownership with that of usage. From healthcare to transportation, housing to banking services, no sector seems to be spared. This revolution is not without its share of resistance: some complain of unfair competition, as in the case of the taxi drivers' revolt against Uber, while others warn of the risk of a rise in self-employment against a backdrop of widespread precariousness. On the side of the collaborative economy, there is no shortage of good-faith arguments: optimization of goods and reduction of ecological costs, as in the case of car sharing, creation of value in saturated markets such as tourist accommodation in Paris... Above all, the collaborative economy would allow everyone to earn extra income in a context marked by mass unemployment and erosion of purchasing power.

New Deal

The particularly sensitive issue of the status of workers in an ecosystem that is still poorly defined remains. For Paul-Henri Antonmattei, the rise of Uber and its peers is merely the manifestation of a fundamental trend, which makes it essential to rethink a legislative framework that is now obsolete: "Labor law was built on a single model, that of the factory. Unity of time, unity of place, unity of action, strong employer power... But this model is no longer relevant in the^21st century." According to this labor law specialist, a member of the Combrexelle commission tasked by the government with considering labor law reform, the solution lies in the development of new instruments such as collective bargaining at the company level. "A solution that allows for greater adaptability of the rules to the diversity of companies, as well as to the diversity of profiles and career paths," he explains . Is the Labor Code ready for the scrap heap? "The law certainly has a role to play, and a common legal framework must be maintained, but it is now impossible to respond with a single, general, impersonal, and permanent standard." The search is on for the elusive "flexicurity," a delicate balance between employee protection and labor market flexibility. "A true economic and social new deal and a formidable challenge," sums up the law professor.

Towards "flexicurity"?

For Michel Garrabé, the dangers of Uberization are very real, especially for those who decide to make it their main source of income: "We see people working 10 hours a day for less than minimum wage," notes the economist. Paul-Henri Antonmattei shares this view: "The Uber system cannot become a model for society because it remains a supplementary system, a makeshift economy. We certainly cannot expect young people to work 45 years in this way..." Other issues remain unresolved, such as the taxation of companies that are quick to relocate profits made in the United States to countries with favorable tax regimes. "We are still in a pre-institutional situation on these issues, but the establishment of a regulatory mechanism is essential," confirms Michel Garrabé. The future of the collaborative economy therefore remains to be invented. And it could hold a few surprises. In his book "The Zero Marginal Cost Society," published in 2014, American economist Jeremy Rifkin imagines an alternative path: that of workers joining together in cooperatives to develop their own networking platforms, contributing to a truly equitable redistribution of profits. Or when technology combined with the market economy realizes Karl Marx's dream.

Keywords: Economy, LUM#2, LUM Magazine, Company