Taxi drivers facing Uber

Bottom right
An economic and political test
By Guillaume Lejeune
English

At the beginning of 2014, the expansion of the Uber company and its affiliated drivers provoked strong reactions in the Parisian taxi industry. Through repeated mobilizations, they have indicated their opposition to this new competition challenging a hitherto regulated labor market. The purpose of this article is to understand the effect of this professional test on their political orientations in relation to apparently contradictory dynamics: those of economic aspirations that they claim to pursue, positioning them to the right of the social and political space, and those linked to the actual deregulation of their activity and driven by an economic philosophy of liberal obedience. The study shows that, in this regard, the opinion clusters of taxi drivers are related to the direction of the politicization of their movement, and that they differ in terms of the forms of accommodation to the situation that are taking root in deeper social and professional divisions.

Keywords

  • independent
  • professional group
  • mobilizations
  • work
  • liberalism
  • corporatism
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