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Philipp BRANDT (Sciences Po) – "Fast bucks, good money and public service : optimizing and experimenting in NYC’s yellow cab industry"

November 21, 2019 @ 12:00 pm - 1:15 pm

The Sociology Seminar: Thursdays

Time: 12:00 pm – 1:15 pm
Date: 21th of November 2019
Place: Room 3105, ENSAE.
Philipp BRANDT (Sciences Po) – “Fast bucks, good money and public service : optimizing and experimenting in NYC’s yellow cab industry”
Abstract : Social scientists have long studied taxi drivers, their markets, risks and personal struggles. I will discuss two new tensions around New York City yellow cab drivers. First, New York City cabbies operate under tight market control and amid predictable passenger flows yet their work is fluid and variable. Second, large organizations make them optimize their time yet they fare better financially experimenting in small ones, where they also provide important public services. I analyze these tensions in a dataset of all taxi trips over one year. This analysis overcomes a methodological challenge. Organizations, central in the industry, were initially missing from the data as well as from my outside view of taxi work. Driver traces reveal them, however, highlighting opportunities for and utility of reflexivity in computational research. Overall, the talk addresses issues around work, organizations and computational methods.
Organizers :
Jeanne GANAULT, Céline GOFFETTE, Sébastien MICHIELS, Sander WAGNER (Laboratoire de sociologie quantitative – CREST)
Sponsors :
CREST