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Taken For A Ride: Grounding Neoliberalism, Precarious Labour, and Public Transport in an African Metropolis

Author

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  • Rizzo, Matteo

    (Department of Development Studies and Economics, University of London)

Abstract

How does public transport work in an African city under neoliberalism? Who owns what in it? Who has the power to influence its shape and changes in it over time? What does it mean to be a precarious and informal worker in the private minibuses that provide public transport in Dar es Salaam? These are the main questions that inform this in-depth case study of Dar es Salaam's public transport system over more than forty years. The growth of cities and informal economies are two central manifestations of globalization in the developing world. Taken for a Ride addresses both, drawing on long-term fieldwork in Dar es Salaam (Tanzania) and charting its public transport system's journey from public to private provision. This new addition to the Critical Frontiers of Theory, Research and Practice in International Development Studies series investigates this shift alongside the increasing deregulation of the sector and the resulting chaotic modality of public transport. It reviews state attempts to regain control over public transport and documents how informal wage relations prevailed in the sector. The changing political attitude of workers towards employers and the state is investigated: from an initial incapacity to respond to exploitation, to the political organisation and unionisation which won workers concessions on labour rights. A longitudinal study of workers throws light on patterns of occupational mobility in the sector, and the political and economic interests that shaped the introduction of Bus Rapid Transit in Dar es Salaam, and local resistance to it are analysed. Taken for a Ride reveals the political economy of public transport, exposing the limitations of market fundamentalist and post-colonial scholarship on economic informality, the urban experience in developing countries, and the failure to locate the agency of the urban poor within their economic and political structures. It is both a contribution and a call for the contextualised study of 'actually existing neoliberalism'.

Suggested Citation

  • Rizzo, Matteo, 2017. "Taken For A Ride: Grounding Neoliberalism, Precarious Labour, and Public Transport in an African Metropolis," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198794240.
    • Handle: RePEc:oxp:obooks:9780198794240
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Lone Riisgaard & Nina Torm & Godbertha Kinyondo & Winnie Mitullah & Anne Kamau & Aloyce Gervas & Raphael Indimuli, 2024. "Challenging the formality bias: The organization of informal work, working relations, and collective agency in Kenya and Tanzania," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 42(1), January.
    2. Porter, Gina & Murphy, Emma & Adamu, Fatima & Dayil, Plangsat Bitrus & Han, Saerom & Dungey, Claire & Maskiti, Bulelani & de Lannoy, Ariane & Clark, Sam & O'Connor, Edward & Ambrosini, Shadi, 2023. "The lived experiences of women workers in Africa's transport sector: Reflections from Abuja, Cape Town and Tunis," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    3. Yogi Joseph & Govind Gopakumar, 2023. "A contingent publicness: Entanglements on buses," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 60(15), pages 3010-3026, November.
    4. Goetz, Julian M., 2022. "What do we know about rural and informal non-farming labour? Evidence from a mixed methods study of artisanal and small-scale mining in Northwest Tanzania," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    5. Lucy Baker, 2021. "Everyday experiences of digital financial inclusion in India's ‘micro-entrepreneur’ paratransit services," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 53(7), pages 1810-1827, October.
    6. Wood, Astrid & Kębłowski, Wojciech & Tuvikene, Tauri, 2020. "Decolonial approaches to urban transport geographies: Introduction to the special issue," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    7. Matteo Rizzo & Maurizio Atzeni, 2020. "Workers’ Power in Resisting Precarity: Comparing Transport Workers in Buenos Aires and Dar es Salaam," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 34(6), pages 1114-1130, December.
    8. Festival Godwin Boateng & Samuelson Appau & Kingsley Tetteh Baako, 2022. "The rise of ‘smart’ solutions in Africa: a review of the socio-environmental cost of the transportation and employment benefits of ride-hailing technology in Ghana," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 9(1), pages 1-11, December.
    9. Festival Godwin Boateng, 2021. "Why Africa cannot prosecute (or even educate) its way out of road accidents: insights from Ghana," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 8(1), pages 1-11, December.
    10. Héritier Mesa, 2022. "Wage labor and social inequality in Kinshasa's informal economy: A class analysis," ULB Institutional Repository 2013/362624, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    11. Kerzhner, Tamara, 2022. "Formalization of East Jerusalem public transport: Mobility, politics and planning," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 105(C).
    12. Festival Godwin Boateng, 2020. "“Indiscipline” in context: a political-economic grounding for dangerous driving behaviors among Tro-Tro drivers in Ghana," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 7(1), pages 1-5, December.
    13. Joël Noret, 2017. "For a multidimensional class analysis in Africa," Review of African Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(154), pages 654-661, October.
    14. Fred Krüger & Alexandra Titz & Raphael Arndt & Franziska Groß & Franziska Mehrbach & Vanessa Pajung & Lorenz Suda & Martina Wadenstorfer & Laura Wimmer, 2021. "The Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) in Dar es Salaam: A Pilot Study on Critical Infrastructure, Sustainable Urban Development and Livelihoods," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-29, January.
    15. Héritier Mesa, 2021. "'We might all live the same life, but we are not the same'. Class and social Position in Kinshasa's second-hand clothing trade," ULB Institutional Repository 2013/313551, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.

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