MOBILISING BODIES: DIFFERENCE, POWER AND ECOLOGY IN URBAN CYCLING PRACTICES

Anna Davidson

Transport Studies UnitSchool of Geography & EnvironmentUniversity of Oxford

Outline• Background• Literature context • A space for critical theory? • Unpacking power, bodily/urban ecologies & difference (with critical theory)

• Research questions • Methodology• Fieldwork sites

Image source: http://www.lolwithme.org/?tag=this-one-runs-on-money-and-makes-you-fat

Image source: http://hazler.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/picture-53.png

Literature context – cycling practices• Cycling and bodies…• Psychological/economics – behaviour change “nudge” • Public health (safety, obesity, activity levels) • Sustainability (reduction in air pollution, carbon footprints)• Urban planning & transport

BUT aggregated, categorized bodies …. “Real bodies moving have never been at the top of the agenda in transport studies” (Creswell, 2010, p.19)

Cycling bodies in social contexts: • Micro: Individual embodied experiences (Dewsbury 2011; Jones; Spinney) • Meso: Cycling as group politics & citizenship (e.g. Aldred) Critical mass

(Furness) • Macro: Socio-technical change, systems theory. Automobility dominant

paradigm, cycling as subaltern mode (Urry; Geels)

BUT…what structures ‘normal’, embedded normative assumptions (‘good’ bodies/cities/lifestyles/progress)? Who gains/loses – why? - power

A space for critical theory?ecologies, power, difference & other conversations across divides

Unpacking: Bodily/urban ecologies

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/carnage-on-londons-streets-as-cyclist-hit-by-coach-is-left-fighting-for-life-just-hours-after-man-is-killed-by-lorry-8923706.html

Fragilebodies(body-thing assemblagesdisassembled?)

Bodily ecologies Baksteen to bakfiets

Image source: https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-Zoh4wVU221s/UjEc-dOPqEI/AAAAAAAAEOU/mG38yi7s_jA/s0/photo.jpg and http://thewheeloftime.biz/bike-riding-a-little-rough

Unpacking: Power

Power as biopower, life & death

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Image source: http://www.strangedangers.com/content/item/181590.

Power in the ‘normal’ & mundanemovementsof bodies

Unpacking: Difference

‘Othered’ bodies

‘Othered’ contexts

“the bicycle is often seen as an intermediate stage in what could be termed the transport development cycle as countries progress from low to high car ownership and eventually back to low impact travel” (MacKinnon et al, 2008 in Pooley et al., 2013)

Research Questions 1. How can theorizations of bodies, cycles and urban environments

(assembled together as urban body-ecologies) help construct understandings and practices that move towards healthier, more inclusive, ‘sustainable’ cities?

2. How can we understand the ways bodily differences and norms of cycling body-ecologies are constituted in different contexts and under different relations of power?

3. In what ways might bodies engaged in everyday urban cycling practices represent a form of resistance against dominant systems, normativities, ideologies and means of/towards mobility.

4. What are the creative and political implications of undertaking research as ‘creative contagion’ – bringing into contact divergent cycling practices from different contexts, using collaborative, action-based research methods?

Methodology “creative contagion”

• Approach: inspired by epistemologies associated with critical theory

• Assumptions:• Methods themselves co-create what is studied (Law,

Latour) • Role of researcher – embodied, self-reflexive

Lends itself to: participative & action research

Where & why – ”contagion” not comparison

India Netherlands United Kingdom

What & howEthnographic methods: • Participant observation • Informal semi-structured interviews • Video diaries/ mobile video/ audio interviews

Documentary data:• Policy documents• Publications/websites/video output

Participatory research:• Video exchanges & reflections shared between contexts

(potentially: focus on ‘nomadic subjects’ – individuals who have moved between contexts)

• Creation of a platform for sharing (website/blog/Youtube)

Image source: Mike Kemp: http://cdn.c.photoshelter.com/img-get2/I0000We39kAQunnc/fit=1000x750/20100

612world-naked-bike-rideL.jpg

Questions?

anna.davidson@ouce.ox.ac.uk

@acdavids

http://cyclesandthings.wordpress.com/

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