Hermes on Two Wheels

Hermes on Two Wheels
Author :
Publisher : University Press of America
Total Pages : 142
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780761847946
ISBN-13 : 0761847944
Rating : 4/5 (944 Downloads)

Book Synopsis Hermes on Two Wheels by : Kevin Wehr

Download or read book Hermes on Two Wheels written by Kevin Wehr and published by University Press of America. This book was released on 2009-09-28 with total page 142 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.


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