Kafui Attoh
Kafui Attoh, Assistant Professor of Urban Studies at the Joseph S. Murphy Institute for Worker Education, received his PhD in Geography from Syracuse University. His broad interests are in the political economy of cities, the politics of public space and debates in and around the idea of the “right to the city.” More narrowly, Kafui’s research has focused on three areas: 1) urban transit’s role within the political economy of cities, 2) the struggles and livelihoods of the transportation disadvantaged and 3) the role of urban social movements (including the labor movement) in shaping mass transit policy. Currently he is working on a project focused on the impact of TNCs (Transportation Network Companies) on the public life of cities. His work has appeared in Progress in Human Geography, New Labor Forum, The Journal of Cultural Geography, The Geographical Bulletin, ACME: An International E-Journal for Critical Geographies, Urban Studies, Antipode, and Space and Polity.
Collected Work
Rights in Transit: Public Transportation and the Right to the City in California’s East Bay
Is public transportation a right? Should it be? For those reliant on public transit, the answer is invariably “yes” to both. Indeed, when city officials propose slashing service or raising fares, it is these riders who are often the first to appear at that officials’ door demanding their “right” to more service. This book starts from the presumption that such riders are justified. For those who lack other means of mobility, transit is a lifeline. It offers access to many of the entitlements we take as essential: food, employment, and democratic public life itself. Drawing on a detailed case study of the various struggles that have come to define public transportation in California’s East Bay, the book offers a direct challenge to contemporary scholarship on transportation equity.
“How Poor Public Transit Makes Idiots of Us All”
America’s mass transit systems are in a sorry state, and only a tiny minority of Americans makes use of them. For Kafui Attoh America’s transit is “idiotic” in two ways: in the sense that it is stupid to have not invested more in it, and in the way it isolates those unable to use cars, excluding them from urban public life.
“Transportation Justice: From Civil Rights to the Right to the City”
This essay argues for a change of approach toward thinking through transportation equity, particularly in terms of the Right to the City. To see transit in these terms is to spend less time ferreting out the racists and more time challenging the political economy of cities themselves. As the legacy of the Montgomery bus boycott suggests, where the demand is for civil rights alone, we risk simply winning the front seat on a sinking ship. Instead, we might take a more radical tack and make more capacious anti-racist demands for robust public services.
