Going Gojek, or Staying Ojek? Competing Visions of Work and Economy in Jakarta’s Motorbike Taxi Industry

Turf wars: The livelihood and mobility frictions of motorbike taxi drivers on Hanoi's streets

“…These forms of ‘frictions’ constitute what Cresswell (2014: 112) calls the ‘grip of worldly encounters’. Along these lines, researchers have begun to highlight the frictions generated when the assumed universality of platform‐mediated logics, technology, and flows of capital interact with local social infrastructures (Peters, 2020; von Vacano, 2021), topography, tempo, and pace (Kasera et al ., 2016; Qadri, 2021), and incumbent actors on the streets of Asian cities (Kumar et al ., 2018; Jack, 2020). These three approaches to friction, analysing its visible, political, and spatially divergent characteristics, make it highly relevant for understanding the dynamics of mobilities and livelihoods of motorbike taxi driver groups in Hanoi.…”

“…The interventions of ride‐hailing platforms into incumbent informal mobility systems have led to the emergence of nuanced layers of conflicts, tensions, and frictions. Within Southeast Asia's urban context, research has often focused on abrupt changes to the organisation of motorbike taxi industries either due to changes in policies or dynamics within the informal sector (Frey, 2020; Sopranzetti, 2021; von Vacano, 2021). Our research expands on such work by illuminating not only the specific moments and sites, but also the politics and relations, and the spatially divergent characteristics of frictions that have been emerging for the mobilities, livelihoods, and tactics of both traditional xe ôm and app‐based drivers.…”

“…Our research expands on such work by illuminating not only the specific moments and sites, but also the politics and relations, and the spatially divergent characteristics of frictions that have been emerging for the mobilities, livelihoods, and tactics of both traditional xe ôm and app‐based drivers. By exploring these interconnected frictions, we have added ethnographic evidence to mobility scholar suggestions that the anticipated universality of platform‐mediated mobilities is being carefully and oft‐times innovatively contested at local sites of interaction (Chen, 2018; Qadri, 2021; von Vacano, 2021). Moreover, we have illustrated the specificities and implications of local context, including migrant labour flows into Hanoi, the city's chaotic traffic, the spatial distinctiveness of small alleyways and streets, and the frequency of ‘irregular’ traffic police negotiations.…”