Final Year Project

Project Title

Sharing Economy Disrupted: Studying the (Un)doing of Platforms in Karachi’s Urban Political Economy

Description

With much literature focusing on the emergence of the sharing economy in the global north, this thesis is an attempt to understand the development of two platforms – Uber and Careem – in a previously understudied economy of the global south, Karachi. Through qualitative interviews with various stakeholders, Uber and Careem providers, vendors, and riders, the essential questions of income, access, and power are brought to light. Research findings indicate an assimilation, as opposed to disruption, of conventional business models, suggestive of the contextual distinctiveness of Karachi’s political economy and society. Results indicate that in Pakistan, unlike the global north, the underlying characteristics of Industry 4.0 are reversed as Uber/Careem map on to the model of prevailing capitalism. The research is significant in outlining the vast implications for future forms of exchange and livelihoods in Pakistan as they are altered by the urban political economy and its overarching determining ability.