{"product_id":"9780761847946","title":"Hermes on Two Wheels: The Sociology of Bicycle Messengers","description":"Hermes on Two Wheels shows the dynamic world of the bicycle messenger through a sociological lens, based on a five-year participant observation study. Beginning with the experiences of messengers themselves and moving to describe the structural settings of those experiences, the research shows how messengers work within a political-economic system that devalues semi-skilled labor and strips people of emotional fulfillment. The voluntary risk-taking of messengers becomes a means of achieving such emotional fulfillment as well as making a living, while their stylistic expressions pay dividends in cultural scrip rather than money. Through their work, messengers help to reproduce and maintain the structures of society while also constructing a vibrant, rebellious, politicized subculture that has come to represent the new urban hipster, an image continually under threat of co-optation.","brand":"UPA","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47106712797424,"sku":"9780761847946","price":34.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780761847946_p0.jpg?v=1769904262","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780761847946","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}