Motorbike People

Power and Politics on Rwandan Streets

Will Rollason

In Motorbike People: Power and Politics on Rwandan Streets, Will Rollason examines the relationship between power and culture. Rollason looks at what social scientists gain—and lose—by abandoning the assumption that power is a universal feature of human social life. Through an ethnographic account of the lives and livelihoods of motorcycle taxi drivers in Kigali, Rwanda, Rollason depicts how forms of personhood can sit uneasily with conventional accounts of power relationships. From the motorcyclists’ everyday dealings with the police and each another to the regulation of their businesses at large and the Rwandan constitution, Rollason depicts the need for varied concepts of power. By allowing concepts of power to proliferate, the social sciences lose the political capacity to engage in questions of justice and make common cause with the oppressed, but gain the ability to rethink what it means to act politically and meet the challenges of a swiftly changing world. This work is recommended for students and scholars of the social sciences.

Lexington Books

Pages: 198 • Trim: 6½ x 9

978-1-4985-7681-9 • Hardback • December 2019 • $111.00 • (£85.00)

978-1-4985-7682-6 • eBook • December 2019 • $105.50 • (£82.00)

Subjects: Social Science / Anthropology / General

Motorbike People

Power and Politics on Rwandan Streets

Hardback

eBook

Summary

In Motorbike People: Power and Politics on Rwandan Streets, Will Rollason examines the relationship between power and culture. Rollason looks at what social scientists gain—and lose—by abandoning the assumption that power is a universal feature of human social life. Through an ethnographic account of the lives and livelihoods of motorcycle taxi drivers in Kigali, Rwanda, Rollason depicts how forms of personhood can sit uneasily with conventional accounts of power relationships. From the motorcyclists’ everyday dealings with the police and each another to the regulation of their businesses at large and the Rwandan constitution, Rollason depicts the need for varied concepts of power. By allowing concepts of power to proliferate, the social sciences lose the political capacity to engage in questions of justice and make common cause with the oppressed, but gain the ability to rethink what it means to act politically and meet the challenges of a swiftly changing world. This work is recommended for students and scholars of the social sciences.

Details

Lexington Books

Pages: 198 • Trim: 6½ x 9

978-1-4985-7681-9 • Hardback • December 2019 • $111.00 • (£85.00)

978-1-4985-7682-6 • eBook • December 2019 • $105.50 • (£82.00)

Subjects: Social Science / Anthropology / General

Author

Will Rollason is senior lecturer of anthropology at Brunel University London.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Dimensions of a livelihood

Chapter 2: Life is crisis

Chapter 3: Growing sweet potatoes

Chapter 4: Buying a path

Chapter 5: When is a state not a state?

Reviews

Rollason cleverly uses the experiences of Kigali's motorcycle taxi drivers as a window for discussing broader issues of personhood, politics, and theory. This accessible and adventurous monograph demonstrates all the strength of the ethnographic method and deserves a wide readership.
— Isak Niehaus, Brunel University London, and author of AIDS in the Shadow of Biomedicine: Inside South Africa's Epidemic

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