Jam-Space and Jam-Time : Traffic in Nairobi

Titelangaben

Bize, Amiel:
Jam-Space and Jam-Time : Traffic in Nairobi.
In: Beck, Kurt ; Klaeger, Gabriel ; Stasik, Michael (Hrsg.): The Making of the African Road. - Leiden : Brill , 2017 . - S. 58-85 . - (Africa-Europe Group for Interdisciplinary Studies ; 18 )
ISBN 978-90-04-33674-2

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Abstract

This chapter examines traffic jams in Nairobi. Moving away from a notion of jams as spaces of idleness (idling cars, wasted work time), the chapter considers some of the ways that jams might be productive: producing class subjectivities, producing opportunities for mobile sellers to access the flow of commuters, and producing a form of space-time in which time is stretched and space thickened. Part One describes the historical and contemporary conditions under which automobility has become dominant in Nairobi. Part Two examines rush hour traffic, focusing on “rush” as a Nairobi condition of life and the jam as an in-between space that extends and destabilizes time. Part Three focuses on those who are outside the car: the mobile vendors for who the jam creates a part-time worksite. It argues that much as the jam destabilizes time, it also produces a new form of space---one that is impermanent but nevertheless dense with interaction and exchange.