Owners of the Map: Motorcycle Taxi Drivers, Mobility, and Politics in BangkokOn May 19, 2010, the Royal Thai Army deployed tanks, snipers, and war weapons to disperse the thousands of Red Shirts protesters who had taken over the commercial center of Bangkok to demand democratic elections and an end to inequality. Key to this mobilization were motorcycle taxi drivers, who slowed down, filtered, and severed mobility in the area, claiming a prominent role in national politics and ownership over the city and challenging state hegemony. Four years later, on May 20, 2014, the same army general who directed the dispersal staged a coup, unopposed by protesters. How could state power have been so fragile and open to challenge in 2010 and yet so seemingly sturdy only four years later? How could protesters who had once fearlessly resisted military attacks now remain silent? Owners of the Map provides answers to these questions—central to contemporary political mobilizations around the globe—through an ethnographic study of motorcycle taxi drivers in Bangkok. Claudio Sopranzetti advances an analysis of power that focuses not on the sturdiness of hegemony or the ubiquity of everyday resistance but on its potential fragility and the work needed for its maintenance. |
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Abhisit Vejjajiva absolute monarchy Adun Adun’s amnāt AMTT analysis argued army attempt Ayutthaya baht Bangkok barami barricades became become bike Boon Buddhist bureaucratic cars central Chinese Chulalongkorn commodities countryside coup created crisis crowd decades demands desires dominated economic elected emerged everyday factory fight forces Fordism formal Gramsci Hong industrial influence infrastructure Isan ISOC itsaraphāp itthiphon king labor leaders Lerm lives migrants military monarchic motorcycle taxi drivers move movement neoliberal northeastern Oboto operate organized phatic phrai police officers political mobilization prime minister production protest Ratchadamnoen Ratchaprasong Red Shirts relations remained rhythms rice ride road role rural shopping malls Siam Siamese Skytrain social soldiers space started station street struggle Sufficiency Economy tensions Thai capital Thailand Thaksin Shinawatra Thaksinomics Thongchai thousand tion traffic transformation transportation urban vests village workers Yellow Shirts