, to see if you have full access to this publication.
Book Titles No access
Hermes on Two Wheels
The Sociology of Bicycle Messengers
Authors:
Publisher:
2009
Summary
Hermes on Two Wheels shows the dynamic world of the bicycle messenger through a sociological lens, based on a five-year participant observation study. Beginning with the experiences of messengers themselves and moving to describe the structural settings of those experiences, the research shows how messengers work within a political-economic system that devalues semi-skilled labor and strips people of emotional fulfillment. The voluntary risk-taking of messengers becomes a means of achieving such emotional fulfillment as well as making a living, while their stylistic expressions pay dividends in cultural scrip rather than money. Through their work, messengers help to reproduce and maintain the structures of society while also constructing a vibrant, rebellious, politicized subculture that has come to represent the new urban hipster, an image continually under threat of co-optation.
Search publication
Bibliographic data
Copyright year
2009
ISBN-Print
978-0-7618-4793-9
ISBN-Online
978-0-7618-4794-6
Publisher
Hamilton Books, Lanham
Language
English
Pages
133
Product type
Book Titles
Table of contents
ChapterPages
Table of Contents No access
Preface No access
1. Introduction: Hermes on Two Wheels No access Pages 1 - 10
2. Why Does Hermes Fly? No access Pages 11 - 30
3. Risk, Edgework, and the Community of Danger No access Pages 31 - 56
4. Visibility and Invisibility: Liminality, Anarchy, and Bike-Punk Culture No access Pages 57 - 84
5. Bicycle Culture, Messenger Solidarity, and Community Matters No access Pages 85 - 108
6. Conclusion: The Last Non Co-opted Punk Rock Subculture No access Pages 109 - 118
