Naomi Schoenbaum (George Washington University Law School) has posted Intimacy and Equality in the Sharing Economy (The Cambridge Handbook of the Law of the Sharing Economy (Nestor Davidson, John Infranca, & Michele Finck, eds. 2018 Forthcoming)) on SSRN. Here is the abstract:
This Chapter explores a key shift in the role of intimacy in the sharing economy and its relationship to equality. From the start, intimacy was a critical part of sharing-economy transactions. Because these transactions tended to occur in more personal spaces, and because firms emphasized personal relationships to enhance trust, the workers and consumers themselves—and their identities—were made central to these transactions. Amid concerns of race and sex discrimination, a number of major sharing-economy firms responded by depersonalizing their transactions, shifting towards a more arms-length approach. This Chapter traces this shift, and discusses some of the costs of achieving equality by reducing intimacy, not only for intimacy and the benefits it brings, but also—and especially—for equality itself.