Katie J Wells
Biographic Data
| ID | 3718607 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Katie J Wells |
| GIVEN NAMES | Katie J |
| FAMILY NAME | Wells |
| SIGNATURE | WELLS K J |
| AFFILIATIONS | Georgetown University |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 11 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 117 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 11 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2015 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
“Fixing” Mobility Platform Research
Mobility platforms have been transforming cities for fifteen years now. Research on these platforms is in robust shape, but there are emerging tensions surrounding how we frame and research platforms’ effects. Increasingly, two opposing views are coalescing. On the one hand, platforms are seen through a Marxist lens as part of an urban spatial fix. On the other hand, research grounded in Feminist geographies, Black, and Queer studies, sees a spat…
The work of waiting
Drawing on research conducted with platform delivery workers in Washington D.C., this paper builds on the work of scholars committed to both describing and challenging the degrading conditions that so often define the gig economy. Acknowledging the importance of both employee classification and citizenship status to understanding the plight of platform-based migrant workers, this paper directs attention to the distinction that platform companies …
Signs at work
We use a geographically informed notion of landscape and Williams’ (1977) framework structure of feeling to examine ‘closed’, masking, and social distancing signs on businesses in the Washington, DC central-city neighborhood of Adams Morgan. We argue that the semantic content and discursive structure of the Covid signs, together with the in-the-moment feeling of walking down empty streets while a little-understood virus had just started raging, p…
Winners of the Ashby prizes
Between ‘automated geography’ and ‘geographies of automation’
In this article, we identify what appear to be two separate approaches to questions of automation within the discipline of Geography. One approach, which we call ‘Automated Geography', examines how automation and technological change impact the discipline itself – everything from how we conduct research to how we relate to institutional power. The second approach, which we deem ‘Geographies of Automation', examines automation’s impact on the worl…
"Just-in-Place" labor
This paper examines the socio-spatial dynamics of worker agency in the platform economy in the Washington, D.C. region. Drawing on the field of labor geography, we document the collective and inherently spatial conditions of laboring under and through new technologies for three years prior to, and six months after, a strike by Uber drivers in May 2019. In doing so, we explore what Uber's platform means for the production, accumulation, and contes…
Gigged
For Curtis Larson, a twenty-four-year-old college graduate living in New York City, the gig economy worked. When he quit a salaried job as a computer programmer to become a full-time freelancer on an online platform called Gigster, he soon made as much—about $10,000 to $12,000 per month—as he had in his previous job. Curtis had newfound freedom with his schedule, like going to the gym in the middle of the day, the chance to hone new technical ski…
Policy-failing
In 1984 voters in Washington, D.C.approved an initiative to guarantee overnight shelter. The city was one of the first jurisdictions in the world to legislate aright to shelter and, to this day, the only one to do so by popular initiative. But the law, which emerged during one of the city’s most politically progressive periods, was overturned by the local legislature, and a voter referendum failed to reinstate it. Based on archival research and 2…
We're building their data
In 2017, Uber Technologies Inc. launched a new service called Uber Movement. Designed by a team of 10 engineers, the new service provided a select number of cities access to Uber's vast trove of transportation data. One of the first cities to partner with Uber on this initiative was Washington, DC. Playing directly to the city's longstanding "smart city" aspirations, the initiative was greeted warmly by city officials eager to market the region a…
The Folklore of the Freeway
Eric Avila. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2014. xi and 228 pp., photos, illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. $24.95 paper (ISBN 978-0-8166-8073-3).The Folklore of the Freeway tr
A Housing Crisis, a Failed Law, and a Property Conflict
In 1978 the local government in the District of Columbia approved a measure to tax up to 70% of the profits made on residential speculation. The tax was the first of its kind in the USA. But, it was quickly overturned and deemed by supporters and opponents a failure. Based on 10 months of archival research and interviews in Washington, DC, this paper examines how property rights became a narrative barrier that tax supporters could not overcome. B…
We're building their data
In 2017, Uber Technologies Inc. launched a new service called Uber Movement. Designed by a team of 10 engineers, the new service provided a select number of cities access to Uber's vast trove of transportation data. One of the first cities to partner with Uber on this initiative was Washington, DC. Playing directly to the city's longstanding "smart city" aspirations, the initiative was greeted warmly by city officials eager to market the region a…
"Just-in-Place" labor
This paper examines the socio-spatial dynamics of worker agency in the platform economy in the Washington, D.C. region. Drawing on the field of labor geography, we document the collective and inherently spatial conditions of laboring under and through new technologies for three years prior to, and six months after, a strike by Uber drivers in May 2019. In doing so, we explore what Uber's platform means for the production, accumulation, and contes…
The work of waiting
Drawing on research conducted with platform delivery workers in Washington D.C., this paper builds on the work of scholars committed to both describing and challenging the degrading conditions that so often define the gig economy. Acknowledging the importance of both employee classification and citizenship status to understanding the plight of platform-based migrant workers, this paper directs attention to the distinction that platform companies …
Policy-failing
In 1984 voters in Washington, D.C.approved an initiative to guarantee overnight shelter. The city was one of the first jurisdictions in the world to legislate aright to shelter and, to this day, the only one to do so by popular initiative. But the law, which emerged during one of the city’s most politically progressive periods, was overturned by the local legislature, and a voter referendum failed to reinstate it. Based on archival research and 2…
A Housing Crisis, a Failed Law, and a Property Conflict
In 1978 the local government in the District of Columbia approved a measure to tax up to 70% of the profits made on residential speculation. The tax was the first of its kind in the USA. But, it was quickly overturned and deemed by supporters and opponents a failure. Based on 10 months of archival research and interviews in Washington, DC, this paper examines how property rights became a narrative barrier that tax supporters could not overcome. B…
Between ‘automated geography’ and ‘geographies of automation’
In this article, we identify what appear to be two separate approaches to questions of automation within the discipline of Geography. One approach, which we call ‘Automated Geography', examines how automation and technological change impact the discipline itself – everything from how we conduct research to how we relate to institutional power. The second approach, which we deem ‘Geographies of Automation', examines automation’s impact on the worl…
The Folklore of the Freeway
Eric Avila. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2014. xi and 228 pp., photos, illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. $24.95 paper (ISBN 978-0-8166-8073-3).The Folklore of the Freeway tr
A Housing Crisis, a Failed Law, and a Property Conflict
In 1978 the local government in the District of Columbia approved a measure to tax up to 70% of the profits made on residential speculation. The tax was the first of its kind in the USA. But, it was quickly overturned and deemed by supporters and opponents a failure. Based on 10 months of archival research and interviews in Washington, DC, this paper examines how property rights became a narrative barrier that tax supporters could not overcome. B…
Policy-failing
In 1984 voters in Washington, D.C.approved an initiative to guarantee overnight shelter. The city was one of the first jurisdictions in the world to legislate aright to shelter and, to this day, the only one to do so by popular initiative. But the law, which emerged during one of the city’s most politically progressive periods, was overturned by the local legislature, and a voter referendum failed to reinstate it. Based on archival research and 2…
We're building their data
In 2017, Uber Technologies Inc. launched a new service called Uber Movement. Designed by a team of 10 engineers, the new service provided a select number of cities access to Uber's vast trove of transportation data. One of the first cities to partner with Uber on this initiative was Washington, DC. Playing directly to the city's longstanding "smart city" aspirations, the initiative was greeted warmly by city officials eager to market the region a…
Gigged
For Curtis Larson, a twenty-four-year-old college graduate living in New York City, the gig economy worked. When he quit a salaried job as a computer programmer to become a full-time freelancer on an online platform called Gigster, he soon made as much—about $10,000 to $12,000 per month—as he had in his previous job. Curtis had newfound freedom with his schedule, like going to the gym in the middle of the day, the chance to hone new technical ski…
Between ‘automated geography’ and ‘geographies of automation’
In this article, we identify what appear to be two separate approaches to questions of automation within the discipline of Geography. One approach, which we call ‘Automated Geography', examines how automation and technological change impact the discipline itself – everything from how we conduct research to how we relate to institutional power. The second approach, which we deem ‘Geographies of Automation', examines automation’s impact on the worl…
"Just-in-Place" labor
This paper examines the socio-spatial dynamics of worker agency in the platform economy in the Washington, D.C. region. Drawing on the field of labor geography, we document the collective and inherently spatial conditions of laboring under and through new technologies for three years prior to, and six months after, a strike by Uber drivers in May 2019. In doing so, we explore what Uber's platform means for the production, accumulation, and contes…
Signs at work
We use a geographically informed notion of landscape and Williams’ (1977) framework structure of feeling to examine ‘closed’, masking, and social distancing signs on businesses in the Washington, DC central-city neighborhood of Adams Morgan. We argue that the semantic content and discursive structure of the Covid signs, together with the in-the-moment feeling of walking down empty streets while a little-understood virus had just started raging, p…
Winners of the Ashby prizes
“Fixing” Mobility Platform Research
Mobility platforms have been transforming cities for fifteen years now. Research on these platforms is in robust shape, but there are emerging tensions surrounding how we frame and research platforms’ effects. Increasingly, two opposing views are coalescing. On the one hand, platforms are seen through a Marxist lens as part of an urban spatial fix. On the other hand, research grounded in Feminist geographies, Black, and Queer studies, sees a spat…
The work of waiting
Drawing on research conducted with platform delivery workers in Washington D.C., this paper builds on the work of scholars committed to both describing and challenging the degrading conditions that so often define the gig economy. Acknowledging the importance of both employee classification and citizenship status to understanding the plight of platform-based migrant workers, this paper directs attention to the distinction that platform companies …
Sociology (7 works) · Economics (6 works) · Political science (6 works) · Computer Science (5 works) · Business (4 works) · Engineering (4 works) · Law (4 works) · Digital Economy and Work Transformation (3 works) · Law (3 works) · Politics (3 works)