Why our region must face the challenges of the gig economy

A couple of opinion pieces that caught my attention this week generated some random thoughts on a complex topic: The future of work and how it relates to cultural development in this region.

The basic argument is that all those cities that have been trying to outdo each other competing to become Amazon’s second headquarters would have been better investing in strengthening their freelance workforce and supporting smaller, homegrown businesses instead.

Some 238 urban areas entered the race, including Greater Waterloo as part of a Greater (much, much greater) Toronto Area bid.

And, as such, we made it to the short list of 20 that currently remain in the running.

It all felt rather embarrassing, so I haven’t paid much attention (although at one point I did think about how a Toronto-BuffaloGolden Horseshoe-plus bid might have been interesting).

Both articles, one from the Atlantic Monthly group’s CityLab project, the other from Fast Company business journal, deal with the rough-and-ready world of disruptive economic innovation in a U.S. context.

The CityLab piece emphasizes the importance of taking action when a homegrown local startup is acquired or goes public.

According to the Fast Company article, freelancers — i.e. people who work part-time and/ or short-term for multiple entities rather than a single, ongoing employer — constitute more than a third of the workforce.

If current trends continue, independent workers will become the majority within a decade.

Some cities are addressing the trend. San Francisco, for instance, has launched a strategy to support independent workers, including providing a “gig economy starter kit for freelancers.”

The kit was developed in partnership with Samaschool, a nonprofit organization dedicated to “preparing low-income populations to succeed as independent workers.”

The downside to all of this, of course, could be massive on many fronts. There are wide swaths of the economy where well-paid, secure, permanent work will simply become untenable.

But there are also advantages. Samaschool’s primer on independent work for “policy-makers, foundations, educators and workforce development providers” groups potential benefits in four categories: Accessibility (lower barriers to entry); flexibility and autonomy; skills and experience development; and income generation.

The primer is the first paper of a three-volume series. The emphasis is on training — preparing individuals, especially those with low incomes, for work in the gig economy, and on policy development.

The Civil Rights Act, for instance, includes protections for employees that don’t apply to independent workers, who are left vulnerable to discrimination and harassment.

This Samaschool material is not fully applicable in the Canadian context, but the issues are universal.

They should be of special interest here, in a city-region that prides itself on its tech-savvy startup culture, and where, due to the concentration of postsecondary educational institutions, a slightly younger demographic prevails.

What struck me as I went through these materials is if these trends are indeed reshaping the workforce as we know it, one of the results will be a normalization of conditions that people who follow culture-related pursuits have always worked under.

Certainly, almost anyone involved in the arts should find the issues that the Samaschool project addresses relevant and informative.

Most of the drawbacks and limitations of independent work listed in the Samaschool primer apply to cultural work as well: Work and income variability; hidden costs (taxes, fess, expenses); isolation; lack of supports and protections.

Some of these challenges, especially isolation, are mitigated by something that resembles Waterloo’s legendary startup culture.

The proliferation of culture-related endeavours of all sorts — new organizations, partnerships, festivals, special events, collectives, explorations, experiments — takes your breath away sometimes.

The difference is that, with the notable exception of digital content and platform development, this is a field where innovation and enterprise doesn’t disrupt, but improves and increases.

Martin de Groot writes about local arts and culture each Saturday. You can reach him by email at mdg131@gmail.com.