Cycling Activism

Peter Cox is Professor of Sociology at the University of Chester, UK. He is the author of Cycling: A Sociology of Vélomobility and Moving People: Sustainable Transport Development, editor of Cycling Cultures and co-editor of The Politics of Cycling Infrastructure, Cycling and Society, and the Routledge Companion to Cycling.

• ContentsIntroduction A GenealogyAimsCycling as PoliticsA note on languageSection One: Theorising movement activism1) Cycling activism and social movements Introduction: Why Cycling activism?Cycling practicesUnderstanding collective actionDefining social movementsContext of analysisCycling studiesSocial movement studies and the politics of knowledgeConfiguring a research questionConclusions2) Movements, Mobilities and Messy Methods IntroductionDefining the field of study: cycling is not a "social movement"Framing activismWhy take action? Achieving goals or simply "being"?Mobilities and Movement(s)Social change and agencyEffective action or efficacious activity?Campaigns and organisations versus lived experienceWhat is research into social movements for?Locating the research and outlining methodEthical reflexivity in cycling studiesConclusions3) Models of social change Introduction: Finding an appropriate interpretative lensThe political subject and practical difficulties of definition Contentious politics and machismoBeyond a focus on the stateOutlining an analytical framework The way of reason and the way of subjectivityWhat is the purpose of change?Change theories in cycling activismRadar plotting as a tool for analysis and actionChange theories exploredContagionEducation Innovation Institutional changeDisruptionPrefigurationApplication Separating change theories from tactical repertoires Further thoughts on prefigurationConclusions4) Ethics, embodiment and experience in social movement research IntroductionReflexive research ethicsActivists, academics and knowledgeDecolonising social movements researchRearguard intellectuals Practical applicationsCo-productionThe corpus and the body as epistemological locationsThe body and marginality Emotions and actionsThe limits of political analysisExperiential knowledgesConclusion: towards an ecology of knowledges5) Post-hegemonic pluralism, everyday resistance and telling storiesIntroductionPost-hegemonic pluralism in cycling activismConnecting the elementsMetaphors matter: seeds and bubblesBubbles and political alternativesInfrapolitics and hidden transcriptsLifestyle movementsLifestyle activism and bourgeois individualismQuiet activismEveryday (quotidian) resistanceCollective action without intentionalityRhetorical agencyMaking StoriesThinking about the past and using historyStories and biography in movementsConclusionsSection Two: Stories of cycle activismIntroducing the case studiesAdvocacy is politicsExplaining the case studiesA note on referencing6) The historic politics of UK cycle activismCycles, technology and politics in the latter years of the long nineteenth centuryContext: cycling and political activismThe formation of the CTC and its first advocacyThe Road Improvement Association and the Road BoardIndustry activism and conservatismEnclosing the commons of the roadRoad deaths in the 1930sCycle path controversiesChanging tactics: making protest publicAnalysing interwar campaigning by the CTCPost war campaigns: boom, bust and an uncertain voiceConclusions7) Transport Politics, Urbanism, Technology and Counterculture Changing landscapes of transport policyThe New Left, 1968 and the Right to the CityThe emergence of political environmentalism UK transport politicsAnti-roads campaigningBicycle Activism Before the Energy CrisisThe dilemmaParis 1972 and Richard’s Bicycle BookCycling and appropriate technologyAfter the energy crisis8) Environmentalism, innovation and entrepreneurshipIntroductionEnvironmentalism and ecopoliticsExceptionalism?Meanwhile, back in the real world…CTC: constructing environments of cyclingLeisure, pleasure and politicsBuilding a DIY cycling countercultureIndustry, innovation, designSpreading the word, shaping the imageCycle festivalsWider significance: innovation and changeConclusions9) Cycle activism and public spaceCritical MassCiclovíaInterpreting mass actions: carnival and heterotopiaThe right to the city: rethinking rights-based campaigningInsurgent public spaces and tactical urbanismCycling through the Covid-19 pandemicConclusions10) Activism in political space: institutions and internationalism IntroductionECF and international cycle advocacyAntecedents – International organisation for cycle tourism (and sport)Formation of the ECFChanging governance: changing advocacyFrom national cycling organisations representation to BrusselsECF ProjectsCyclelogisticsCycling and the SDGsEU cycling economyThe Pan-European MasterplanAcademia and activism in Brazil Feminist cycling research and activismBackground to Brazil’s upsurge in cycle activismChallenging problem frameworksConclusions11) Supporting everyday resistance, diversity and inclusionIntroductionEveryday cycling: just ridingAction on diversityConnecting varieties of activismCycling and autonomyBike kitchens and velonomyWomen’s voices in cycle activismGhost bikes and emotionsPlacing everyday resistance in a larger frameworkConclusions