In This Profession We Eat Dust

Informal and Formal Solidarity among Women Urban Transportation Workers in Nepal

Bibliographic Data

ID3883897
AuthorsB Grossman-Thompson (0000-0001-9383-2399, Thomson Foundation, corresponding author), Barbara Grossman‐thompson
Year2020
Volume51
Issue3
Pages874-894
Publication date2020-05-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueDevelopment and Change (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0012-155X • E-ISSN: 1467-7660
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/dech.12580
OpenAlexW3016755728
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited42

This article considers the working lives of women who drive electric rickshaws, known as tempos, in Kathmandu, Nepal. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, the author examines drivers' precarious working conditions and the strategies they use in an effort to secure better conditions and job security. This case study illuminates the particulars of women tempo drivers' day-to-day experiences and also speaks to larger debates in feminist political economy surrounding women's entrance into the paid labour force, especially in South Asia. Women drivers provide a compelling example of how socio-economically disadvantaged women in industrializing and urbanizing cities of the global South find ways to create and protect spaces of dignified work and worker solidarity despite myriad challenges. Evidence from the research suggests that both informal and more formalized coping and resistance strategies are important mechanisms through which women seek to change the terms of their labour

Disadvantaged · Economic growth · Economics · Ethnography · Informal sector · Migrant workers · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Solidarity · Work (physics) · Digital Economy and Work Transformation · Employment and Welfare Studies · Engineering · Gender Studies · Labor Movements and Unions · Law

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