Cycling Activism

The first full-length study of cycling activism through the lens of social movement theory, this book demonstrates that, despite tremendous differences, bike activism can be understood as a continuous and connected activity spanning a century and a half and across continents. With examples from street protest to institutional lobbying, it emphasises cycling's current central importance to zero carbon transport futures, while showing that cycling activism is also not always about the bike or the cyclist, as successive generations of activists have used cycling to articulate different visions of freedom and autonomy. Moving from a consideration of social movement theory as a means to understand cycling activism, the author presents a series of case studies of collective action, organisations, networks and campaigns in order to illustrate and elaborate a theoretical model through which diverse campaigns and approaches to change can be understood. As such, Cycling Activism will appeal to those with interests in mobilisation for social change, mobility and transport studies, and social movement theory, as well as cycling studies.

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.

Contents Introduction A Genealogy Aims Cycling as Politics A note on language Section One: Theorising movement activism 1) Cycling activism and social movements Introduction: Why Cycling activism? Cycling practices Understanding collective action Defining social movements Context of analysis Cycling studies Social movement studies and the politics of knowledge Configuring a research question Conclusions 2) Movements, Mobilities and Messy Methods Introduction Defining the field of study: cycling is not a "social movement" Framing activism Why take action? Achieving goals or simply "being"? Mobilities and Movement(s) Social change and agency Effective action or efficacious activity? Campaigns and organisations versus lived experience What is research into social movements for? Locating the research and outlining method Ethical reflexivity in cycling studies Conclusions 3) Models of social change Introduction: Finding an appropriate interpretative lens The political subject and practical difficulties of definition Contentious politics and machismo Beyond a focus on the state Outlining an analytical framework The way of reason and the way of subjectivity What is the purpose of change? Change theories in cycling activism Radar plotting as a tool for analysis and action Change theories explored Contagion Education Innovation Institutional change Disruption Prefiguration Application Separating change theories from tactical repertoires Further thoughts on prefiguration Conclusions 4) Ethics, embodiment and experience in social movement research Introduction Reflexive research ethics Activists, academics and knowledge Decolonising social movements research Rearguard intellectuals Practical applications Co-production The corpus and the body as epistemological locations The body and marginality Emotions and actions The limits of political analysis Experiential knowledges Conclusion: towards an ecology of knowledges 5) Post-hegemonic pluralism, everyday resistance and telling stories Introduction Post-hegemonic pluralism in cycling activism Connecting the elements Metaphors matter: seeds and bubbles Bubbles and political alternatives Infrapolitics and hidden transcripts Lifestyle movements Lifestyle activism and bourgeois individualism Quiet activism Everyday (quotidian) resistance Collective action without intentionality Rhetorical agency Making Stories Thinking about the past and using history Stories and biography in movements Conclusions Section Two: Stories of cycle activism Introducing the case studies Advocacy is politics Explaining the case studies A note on referencing 6) The historic politics of UK cycle activism Cycles, technology and politics in the latter years of the long nineteenth century Context: cycling and political activism The formation of the CTC and its first advocacy The Road Improvement Association and the Road Board Industry activism and conservatism Enclosing the commons of the road Road deaths in the 1930s Cycle path controversies Changing tactics: making protest public Analysing interwar campaigning by the CTC Post war campaigns: boom, bust and an uncertain voice Conclusions 7) Transport Politics, Urbanism, Technology and Counterculture Changing landscapes of transport policy The New Left, 1968 and the Right to the City The emergence of political environmentalism UK transport politics Anti-roads campaigning Bicycle Activism Before the Energy Crisis The dilemma Paris 1972 and Richard's Bicycle Book Cycling and appropriate technology After the energy crisis 8) Environmentalism, innovation and entrepreneurship Introduction Environmentalism and ecopolitics Exceptionalism? Meanwhile, back in the real world... CTC: constructing environments of cycling Leisure, pleasure and politics Building a DIY cycling counterculture Industry, innovation, design Spreading the word, shaping the image Cycle festivals Wider significance: innovation and change Conclusions 9) Cycle activism and public space Critical Mass Ciclovía Interpreting mass actions: carnival and heterotopia The right to the city: rethinking rights-based campaigning Insurgent public spaces and tactical urbanism Cycling through the Covid-19 pandemic Conclusions 10) Activism in political space: institutions and internationalism Introduction ECF and international cycle advocacy Antecedents - International organisation for cycle tourism (and sport) Formation of the ECF Changing governance: changing advocacy From national cycling organisations representation to Brussels ECF Projects Cyclelogistics Cycling and the SDGs EU cycling economy The Pan-European Masterplan Academia and activism in Brazil Feminist cycling research and activism Background to Brazil's upsurge in cycle activism Challenging problem frameworks Conclusions 11) Supporting everyday resistance, diversity and inclusion Introduction Everyday cycling: just riding Action on diversity Connecting varieties of activism Cycling and autonomy Bike kitchens and velonomy Women's voices in cycle activism Ghost bikes and emotions Placing everyday resistance in a larger framework Conclusions