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SUMMARY:(Im)mobilizing Bangkok: motorcycle taxi drivers\, street protest\,
  and the fragility of power in the Thai capital - Claudio Sopranzetti (Uni
 versity of Oxford)
DTSTART:20140430T163000Z
DTEND:20140430T180000Z
UID:TALK52050@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:29816
DESCRIPTION:This talk explores the mobility of motorcycle taxi drivers in 
 Bangkok as well their adoption of it during the Red Shirt protests of 2010
 . I analyze how the drivers' physical mobility through traffic shapes thei
 r ability to find unexplored routes in the social\, economic\, and politic
 al landscapes of the city and to create paths for action where other urban
  dwellers see a traffic jam or a political gridlock. Such ability\, I argu
 e\, directed their roles in  the street protest which blocked the center o
 f Bangkok. When the everyday life of the city broke down\, this talk will 
 show\, the drivers took advantage of their position in urban circuits of e
 xchange to emerge as central political actors in contemporary Bangkok by b
 locking\, slowing down\, or filtering the circulation of people\, goods\, 
 and information which they normally facilitate. In this sense\, they revea
 l the fragility of state power in the Thai capital and its inability to co
 ntrol these mobile subjects.
LOCATION:Room S1 of the Alison Richard Building\, 7 West Road\, CB39DT\, C
 ambridge
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