Paradoxes of Openness and Distinction in the Sharing Economy

Опубликовано 22 июня 2016, 3:29

Since the 1980s, Pierre Bourdieu’s influence in sociology has increased markedly, including on the study of consumption and economic life (Sallaz and Zavisca 2007). Bourdieu’s formulation of multiple types of capital (economic, cultural and social) and their role in producing and reproducing durable inequality has been highly productive in a variety of contexts. However, while scholars have examined practices of distinction, the structure of particular fields, and the role of specific capitals in social reproduction, there has been less attention to economic exchanges at a micro, interactional level (King 2000). In this paper, we use a Bourdieusian approach to study new kinds of exchanges in the “sharing economy” and the ways in which distinction and inequality operate within them. To do this, we extend Bourdieu by bringing in conceptual tools from relational economic sociology. This literature, pioneered by Viviana Zelizer (2010, 2005b, 2012), emphasizes the importance of meaning, the role of culture in structuring economic activity, and the idea that economic exchanges require ongoing interpersonal negotiations. We use relational analysis to study how people deploy, convert, and use their capital. In particular, we show how cultural capital is used to establish superior position in the context of various types of exchanges. Thus, our contribution is an investigation into how Bourdieusian inequality is reproduced via interpersonal relations in the context of exchange.