A viscous cycle: low motility amongst Phnom Penh’s highly mobile cyclo riders

Laurie Parsons and Sabina Lawreniuk

Mobilities, 2017, vol. 12, issue 5, 646-662

Abstract: This paper uses the concept of viscosity to highlight how structural impediments to movement affect not only populations and individuals characterised by low (or no) mobility but also highly mobile groups. Using the ‘cyclo’ riding paratransit workers of Phnom Penh as a lens, it is suggested here that groups of this sort are trapped in high-mobility cycles by a combination of structural factors and the discourse of their livelihoods. Specifically, cyclo riders are bound to their livelihoods by three overlapping forces: the evolution of Cambodia’s paratransit system during the past 20 years leading to diminishing demand for their services; shifts in agricultural production practices; and the changing narrative meaning of the occupation in the eyes of its customers. By combining a migration systems perspective with insights from previous work on the cultural discourse of mobility, it is argued here that this combination of pressures impels cyclo riders movement – and prevents its cessation – in such a way as to constitute the components of a circular, or mobile, viscosity.

Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/17450101.2016.1176775 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:rmobxx:v:12:y:2017:i:5:p:646-662

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/rmob20

DOI: 10.1080/17450101.2016.1176775

Access Statistics for this article

Mobilities is currently edited by Professor Kevin Hannam, Professor Mimi Sheller and Professor John Urry

More articles in Mobilities from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().