The socio-spatial installed base: Ride-hailing applications, parking associations, and precarity in tuk tuk driving in Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Abstract

In this paper I present an infrastructural analysis of the changing tuk tuk driving sector in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. I argue that drivers’ informal, long-standing parking associations, located at well-defined parking spots and based on kinship relations, act as the socio-spatial installed base of Phnom Penh’s tuk tuk infrastructure. I show that two recent infrastructural changes – the increased popularity of ride-hailing applications and “Indian-style” tuk tuks – have made traditional tuk tuk driving more precarious. I show how the parking associations help traditional drivers manage the negative consequences of infrastructural changes. My analysis indicates that parking associations with their kinship bonds, experience, and geographical positioning put established drivers in a privileged position in relation to new independent drivers using digital tools. In effect, while long-standing associations can be effective tools of subversion to platform economies, they also produce barriers to inclusive solidarity.

Keywords:

• Apps
• digital labor
• gig economy
• infrastructure
• labor organizing
• ride-hailing applications

Notes

1 Three additional interviews were conducted in September 2019

2 Statistics from IDEA.

3 95% of people with Cambodian citizenship are of Khmer ethnicity; the largest minority groups are the Muslim Cham, Vietnamese, and Chinese

4 Though there are unions for other sectors, the most well organized is that of the garment work sector.

5 Khmer-style Tuk Tuk added to the application in 2018. You can also choose to ride in a car or an SUV, though these have been rare until 2019.

6 Grab began operations in Cambodia in March 2018, the same month in which Grab and Uber merged in Southeast Asia

7 English is the second most common language in Cambodia and used in international businesses and NGOs; Cambodians with higher levels of education are more likely to speak English.

8 In November 2017, the Phnom Penh police cracked down on unregistered Indian-style tuk tuks and required that they register for a fee with the government before being used on the road (Spiess and Kotoski 2017); today, however, they are running normally.

9 This history of nationalism includes the 1975-79 Khmer Rouge genocide. The regime disproportionately targeted ethnic minorities including Vietnamese and Cham people (see Kiernan 2002). Political parties continue to exacerbate anti-minority hatred in their rhetoric. The most famous example is the Cambodia National Rescue Party’s targeting of Vietnamese people living in Cambodia (see Giry 2015)