Driving across the warscape: Syrian cross-border taxi drivers and the politics of mobility

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

In this paper, I draw on ethnographic research with Syrian cross border taxi drivers in developing an argument about how their mobility is a crucible of the interlocking relations between the production of masculinity and political economy during wartime. I propose that thinking with the Syrian cross-border taxi driver advances our theoretical approaches to the temporality of war and the conceptualization of warscape. In so doing, I challenge the unidirectional (out of Syria) notions of movement which have dominated our spatial understandings of the long conflict and which circulate around the figure of the refugee.

Original languageEnglish
JournalEnvironment and Planning C: Politics and Space
DOIs
StateAccepted/In press - 2023

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This research was made possible by a grant from the Wenner-Gren Foundation. For feedback on earlier drafts of this paper I thank Sarah Besky as well as the organizers and participants at the 2018 “Histories and Rhythms of Urban Violence” workshop at Erfurt University. I thank the two anonymous reviewers and the editor for their comments, suggestions and guidance. I am immensely grateful to the Syrian drivers who are the subject of this paper. To Wajdi and all of the others, thank you, and may your load be lifted.

Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2023.

Keywords

  • Labor
  • militarism
  • mobility
  • Syria
  • war

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Geography, Planning and Development
  • Environmental Science (miscellaneous)
  • Public Administration
  • Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law

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