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Drawing on interviews with gig workers, policymakers, Uber lobbyists, and community organizers, Katie J. Wells and Kafui Attoh will discuss their new book, Disrupting D.C.: The Rise of Uber and the Fall of the City, with journalist Chenjerai Kumanyika and explain how Uber offered a lifeline --- though a costly one --- to cities struggling with broken transit, underemployment, and racial polarization. They will offer a 360-degree view of an urban America in crisis. Understanding why Uber rose will reveal just how far the rest of us have fallen.

About the Authors/Speakers:

Dr. Katie Wells is a postdoctoral fellow at Georgetown University. She studies how tech affects the way we live in cities, and especially how we govern them. She has published findings on data surveillance, labor rights, and public policy in academic journals, and discussed the real-time impacts of her research in 90+ media stories. She lives in DC.

Kafui Attoh is an associate professor of urban studies at the CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies. His research 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.” He is the author of Rights in Transit: Public Transportation and the Right to the City in California’s East Bay (University of Georgia Press 2019) as well as numerous articles published in both academic and public venues.

Dr. Chenjerai Kumanyika is Assistant Professor in the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute, at New York University. Alongside his scholarship and teaching, disciplinary service on the intersections of social justice and media, Kumanyika specializes in using narrative non-fiction audio journalism to critique the ideology of American historical myths about issues such as race, the Civil War, and policing.

About the Book:

The first city to fight back against Uber, Washington, D.C., was also the first city where such resistance was defeated. It was here that the company created a playbook for how to deal with intransigent regulators and to win in the realm of local politics. The city already serves as the nation’s capital. Now, D.C. is also the blueprint for how Uber conquered cities around the world—and explains why so many embraced the company with open arms.

Drawing on interviews with gig workers, policymakers, Uber lobbyists, and community organizers, Disrupting D.C. demonstrates that many share the blame for lowering the nation’s hopes and dreams for what its cities could be. In a sea of broken transit, underemployment, and racial polarization, Uber offered a lifeline. But at what cost?

This is not the story of one company and one city. Instead, Disrupting D.C. offers a 360-degree view of an urban America in crisis. Uber arrived promising a new future for workers, residents, policymakers, and others. Ultimately, Uber’s success and growth was never a sign of urban strength or innovation but a sign of urban weakness and low expectations about what city politics can achieve. Understanding why Uber rose reveals just how far the rest of us have fallen.