Taken For A Ride

This political economy case study delves into the public transport system in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, investigating the shift from public to private provision and the resulting chaotic modality of public transport. The book examines state attempts to regain control over public transport and documents how informal wage relations persisted in the sector. It also sheds light on the changing political attitude of workers towards employers and the state, and their eventual unionization. The book concludes with an analysis of the political and economic interests shaping the introduction of Bus Rapid Transit in Dar es Salaam and local resistance to it. The study is a contribution to and a call for the contextualized study of neoliberalism.