The Cycling and Society symposium series was launched in 2004 at Lancaster University. The symposia are linked to the Cycling and Society Research Group whose members span many disciplines and approaches to the study of cycling. The book ‘Cycling and Society‘ was published in 2007, reuniting some of the research presented during the first editions.

In 2004, after the first edition of Cycling and Society Symposium, one of the organisers, Dave Horton, wrote:

The last two days of June saw around 35 people who like to think about cycling gather under the banner of ‘Cycling and the Social Sciences’, at the Centre for Mobilities Research, Lancaster University. There’s a growing number of social scientists with a research interest in cycling dotted around the country, and it seemed sensible to organise an event to bring them together, along with transport professionals and cycling activists, and thereby strengthen the profile of academic work into cycling using the new kickstand for bike. Given the clear relevance of cycling to a whole range of current concerns – about congestion, pollution, sustainability, climate change, quality-of-life, health and disease – the time certainly seems right to push for the policy-relevance of research into cycling.