FYS 74 Driving the American Dream: Taxis, Tech, and Transformations in American Capitalism
From Robert DeNiro’s evocative performance in Taxi Driver to Frank Ocean’s intimate, confessional song “Bad Religion,” taxis and taxi drivers have played a captivating role in American pop culture during the past half century. Yet with the rise of app-based ride services and speculation of a “driverless” future, some have declared “the end of taxis” is near. Riding along with the taxi industry, this course examines the views from the back seat of the cab: cultural production, technological innovation, racial politics, urban landscapes, immigrant labor, worker power, and government regulations. Looking at taxis in film, tv, music, and media, and reading texts about the industry’s changing conditions over the 20th and 21st centuries, students will be encouraged to ask expansive questions and write critically and creatively about technology and temporalities, political economy and labor, and how narratives of power and progress unfold historically and in our current moment.