There's a real danger of objectifying the 'taxi driver' here, isn't there? In cities across the global south (and do we really have to use the acronym GS for this?) there are a vast range of transport-related pluriactivities that may or may not correspond to driving a taxi. In Managua (where I've spent some time) if you stand by the side of the road and stick your hand out within a short time someone will stop and pick you up - they may be a taxi-driver but equally likely they're not, they're just someone who sees a chance to make a quick buck, particularly if you're chele, foreigner. There are trucks that trundle across and between the cities of the pacific zone there that don't seem to have any formal timetable, the people just gather in a certain place and wait patiently and a truck will arrive - how they know is quite a mystery. There are shared cars that go along set routes, there are microbuses that take small groups of people and again have no timetable, and most of the people who drive these things have other jobs too - so isn't a valid starting point for this question, how do you define taxi-driver?
And does it really make much sense to construct an icon of 'the knowledge', in an age of SatNav?
Dr Jon Cloke
Lecturer/Research Associate
Geography Department
Loughborough University
Loughborough LE11 3TU
Office: 01509 228193
Mob: 07984 813681
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From: A forum for critical and radical geographers [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Hugh Crosfield [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 23 June 2011 13:51
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: taxi driving geographers
While i don't know of any Taxi driving geographers, I am currently working on a NGO called Stop The Traffik who are running taxi driver workshops to utilise the 'community knowledge' of taxi drivers with the aim of uncovering signs of trafficking practices (the controlled movement of people into forms of forced labour through deception). The project is in its infancy but STT believe that taxi drivers could be key witnesses to 'new' forms of slavery in the London area. I think this highlights how taxi drivers are connected to informal economies of labour and policing. (any taxi drivers on this forum like to comment?!). STT believe that more than the cognitive and kinesthetic learning of 'the knowledge', taxi drivers combine their learned mobility and heightened recognition of places with an understanding of less visible cultural channels of communication and interaction. But critically, these are perhaps unwanted responsibilities.
Anyone who has worked with taxi drivers please comment!
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