@conference {977626,
	title = {Taxi Violence and the Politics of Mobility in Post-Apartheid South Africa},
	booktitle = {WCFIA Undergraduate Thesis Conference},
	year = {2017},
	month = {February 3},
	publisher = {Weatherhead Center for International Affairs},
	organization = {Weatherhead Center for International Affairs},
	address = {Cambridge, MA},
	abstract = {Minibus taxis in South Africa are a form of paratransit{\textemdash}or semi-public, semi-private transportation that combine elements of economic formality and informality. Taxis are responsible for transporting more than 65 percent of South Africa{\textquoteright}s citizenry, and are particularly significant to the country{\textquoteright}s urban poor due to their low cost, social embeddedness, and a long history of resistance under the apartheid regime. However, taxis are also widely notorious for violence and gangsterism, even though the industry today is regulated by the government and taxi associations through mechanisms ranging from permitting to aggressive patrolling. This thesis attempts to explain the continuity of the industry{\textquoteright}s violent and aggressive nature into the post-apartheid era. I specifically examine the metropolitan industry of Cape Town, the legislative capital of South Africa, particularly in light of the souring taxi-government relation there after the recent (and, as of 2016, ongoing) implementation of a competing bus rapid transport system called MyCiTi bus. I focus on how the taxi is disputed as both vehicles on the street and as figurative vehicles of social mobility. Drawing upon literature on the anthropology of infrastructure, I argue that the rationalizing mission of the government, epitomized by the rollout of MyCiTi bus, has fomented a crisis of sovereignty between the government and taxi industry that has engendered anger and mistrust. The tension between the Weberian rational-legal authority of municipal governance and the popular sovereignty of the taxi industry has had the consequence of crystallizing an ethos of masculine aggression in the industry. My argument emerges out of fieldwork from the summer of 2016, conducted in major taxi ranks in Cape Town. I engaged in participant-observation research at several sites, primarily taxi routes and ranks in the city, incorporating sites both close to the city center and those located in distant townships. I also draw upon conversations and interviews that range from affiliates of the taxi industry, such as drivers and owners, to regulatory officials and academics.\&nbsp;},
	author = {Luce, Samantha Deborah}
}
