[Reader-list] Anthony Kalamar: Share like a Sherpa: Class Inequality in the "Sharing" Economy

[patrice]

Original to:
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Share-like-a-Sherpa-Class-by-Anthony-Kalamar-Class_Inequality_Language_Sharing-Economy-151026-178.html

(two remarks below, by yrs truly)



Share like a Sherpa: Class Inequality in the "Sharing" Economy
By Anthony Kalamar
October 26, 2015



The "sharing economy" evokes an image of free, socially-minded exchange 
among friends and equals. Yet, it is increasingly clear that much of 
what goes by this name today is dependent on, and exacerbates, social 
inequality. In truth, the sharing economy is divided into two classes: 
Sherpas and Sahibs.

Once, being treated like a Sahib was reserved for the elite of the 
British Empire. Today, there's an app for that.

Last year, controversy erupted over the alleged gentrification of 
Burning Man by Silicon Valley tech money; among the wealthy elite's 
crimes against the Burner ethos was the use of hired help for many of 
the less agreeable aspects of the Black Rock lifestyle: setting up and 
taking down camps; preparing and serving food and drinks. Often 
experienced burners themselves, these workers were paid not just to make 
life easier for the noob-leet; but to help them pick properly unique and 
self-expressing outfits, to show them around Black Rock City, to get 
them safely back to camp after over-indulging, and, overall, to create 
and share an experience for their wealthy employers to enjoy.

Sort of like a hired friend or mentor. They came to be called "sherpas."

The sherpa phenomenon led to controversy because it is so clearly in 
contrast to Burning Man's shared ethic of self-reliance, radical 
inclusion, and decommodification. Yet Black Rock City is not the only 
place where the values of "friendship" and "sharing" are invoked to 
obscure underlying relations of inequality.

The real Sherpas (with a capital S), are, of course, an ethnic group in 
Nepal, not a job category. But uses of the word similar to the meaning 
used at Burning Man can be found in tech culture ("network sherpas" and 
"web sherpas") and gaming ("game sherpas") and beyond. In the "sharing 
economy," it is represented by SherpaShare, a platform that provides 
statistical support for drivers for Uber, Lyft, and similar services.

Part of the significance of the growing use of the word "sherpa" in the 
sharing economy is that it communicates that these workers, like the 
real Sherpas, do more than physical work; importantly, they are 
affective laborers who create and share in experiences for the on-demand 
enjoyment of others. As George Orwell said, language is "an instrument 
which we shape for our own purposes." "Sherpa" is a word that names a 
category, a kind of worker, who can then find an identity and a common 
interest with each other. Where the word "sharing" has been used to 
cover-up the underpaid, precarious situation of these workers, "sherpa," 
in response, can be used to clarify and make visible.

The next step is to determine: what to call those who the 
sharing-sherpas work for? That should be easy; just turn to the history 
of the original Sherpas, and extend the metaphor an additional step: 
sherpas work for sahibs.

The real Sherpas live in the vicinity of Mount Everest. Many of them 
make their income by working for extreme tourists--wealthy "job 
creators" who make seasonal treks from the richer nations of the world 
to climb the famous peaks of the Himalayas, probably for the purpose of 
self-discovery or some similar El Dorado. The Sherpas' job is the 
sharing of knowledge and experience; it requires the development of 
trust, and an intimately shared experience in the face of the thrill and 
the danger of the ascent. Helping their wealthy clientele reach the 
summit, Sherpas risk injury, extreme cold, and often death; it must be 
like working in a coal mine where the product is adventure.

For decades, the Sherpas addressed their mountaineering employers as 
"sahibs," which means "master," a word dating from the British Empire. 
They stopped using this word in the 1970s, as part of a movement to 
attain greater respect from their employers; but anthropologist Sherry 
Ortner, who studied the Sherpas, decided to keep using the term "sahib" 
to mark the enduring ethnic and class distinction between Sherpas and 
their employers. As she writes, the word "sahib"

     "places the sahibs in the same frame as the Sherpas, a single 
category of people being subjected to ethnographic scrutiny. And... 
though I do not accept the implication of superiority embodied in the 
term (which is of course why the Sherpas stopped using it), I do not 
think it is possible to avoid the (ongoing) fact of sahibs' power over 
the Sherpas on expeditions; my continuing, somewhat ironic, use of the 
term signals this continuing fact."

The sharing economy needs just such a term, to place those who benefit 
from the cheap affective labor of the sherpas "in the same frame" and 
subjected to the same scrutiny as the sharing sherpas themselves. 
Recognizing the two classes of the sharing economy--sherpas and 
sahibs--means recognizing the built-in inequality, the continuing 
complicity of consumers in the exploitation of precarious workers, that 
is the real engine of the so-called "sharing economy."


Anthony Kalamar is an independent scholar and writer on environmental 
and technology issues.



Remarks:

- another use of the word 'sherpa', this time, in a more elevated 
semnse, was in French politics, to design (very) high civil servants, or 
personal 'counselors of the Prince' (Francois Mitterand wholesaled in 
them), who 'paved the way' in solving tricky issues and entering into 
difficult negotiations. Jacques Attali and Dominique Strauss Kahn are 
famous examples.

- on language: in the seventies, when old compartimented upper class 
boogies were still in use on the railways of the Subcontinent, a special 
- 3rd class - compartment was set aside at the end of the carriage, to 
accomodate  'Attendants' (India) / 'Servants* (Pakistan) in the service 
of upper class passengers.