Towards an Anthropology of Traffic: A Ride Through Class Hierarchies on Istanbul's Roadways
Ethnos, cilt.78, sa.4, ss.515-542, 2013 (SSCI, Scopus)
- Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
- Cilt numarası: 78 Sayı: 4
- Basım Tarihi: 2013
- Doi Numarası: 10.1080/00141844.2012.714395
- Dergi Adı: Ethnos
- Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), Scopus
- Sayfa Sayıları: ss.515-542
- Anahtar Kelimeler: highways, Istanbul, mobility, Traffic, transport, urban inequality
- Boğaziçi Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet
Özet
Anthropological studies have paid too little attention to the everyday experience of traffic, a fact all the more striking given the central place that traffic has come to occupy in urban life worldwide. I submit that the daily experience of traffic is a critical and underutilised medium for examining social inequality in a global, urban social order. My analysis invokes the spectrum of inequalities in relation to traffic in Istanbul, mapping both the hierarchies born out in paradigmatic traffic situations and certain extremes - those barred or excused from participating in the traffic scene. I argue that traffic congestion constitutes a unique zone in which cross-class encounters take place. This analytical focus on the daily experience of traffic demonstrates that urban inequality is produced not only through segregated social spaces, but also on the move. © 2013 © 2013 Taylor & Francis.