Cycling&Academia | Cycling and Society

Luis Vivanco – Reconsidering the bicycle.

The surge of interest amongst British social scientists in cycling is mainly associated with the first edition of Cycling and Society symposium, in 2004 in Lancaster. The book that resulted from the first iterations of the conference, ‘Cycling and Society‘ (2007), has been followed by a plethora of research projects, journal articles and academic books all focusing on cycling.

We present below a list of academic projects and outputs as well as some of the main researchers whose interest revolve around the bicycle. We hope this is a good starting point for younger academics who want to engage with cycling research. If you know we might have missed something essential, drop us a line at cyclingandsociety[at]gmail[dot]com. Because sharing is caring!

Books

Peter Cox (ed) – Cycling Cultures

Bijker, Wiebe (1995) Of bicycles, bakelites and bulbs: Toward a Theory of Sociotechnical Change, London: MIT Press.
Carlsson, Chris (2002) Critical Mass: Bicycling’s Defiant Celebration, Oakland, California: AK Press.
Cox, Peter (2015) Cycling Cultures, Chester: University of Chester Press.
Furness, Zack (2010) One Less Car. Bicycling and the politics of automobility, Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
Gerike, Regine and Parkin, John (2015) Cycling Futures. From Research into Practice, Furnham: Ashgate.
Héran, Frédéric (2014) Le retour de la bicyclette. Une histoire des déplacements urbains en Europe, de 1817 à 2050, Paris: La Découverte.
Longhurst, James (2015) Bike Battles. A History of Sharing the American Road, Washington: University of Washington Press.
Norcliffe, Glen (2001) The Ride to Modernity: The Bicycle in Canada, 1869-1900, Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

Regine Gerike and John Parkin (eds) – Cycling Futures

Parkin, John (ed) Cycling and Sustainability, Bingley: Emerald Group Publishing Limit.
Pooley, Colin (ed) (2013) Promoting Walking and Cycling. New Perspectives on Sustainable Travel, Bristol: Policy Press.
Pucher, John and Buehler, Ralph (eds) (2012) City Cycling, London: MIT Press.
Reid, Carlton (2015) Roads Were Not Built For Cars, Washington DC: Island Press.
Vivanco, Luis (2013) Reconsidering the Bicycle. An Anthropological Perspective on a New (Old) Thing, London: Routledge.

Journal articles

Article by Ruth Oldenziel and Adri A. Albert de la Bruhèze (2011) ‘Contested Spaces Bicycle Lanes in Urban Europe, 1900–1995’.

Aldred, Rachel (2012) ‘Governing transport from welfare state to hollow state: The case of cycling in the UK‘, Transport Policy, 23:95–102.
Aldred, Rachel (2014) ‘A Matter of Utility? Rationalising Cycling, Cycling Rationalities‘, Mobilities, DOI: 10.1080/17450101.2014.935149.
Brown, Katrina (2012) ‘Sharing Public Space across Difference: Attunement and the Contested Burdens of Choreographing Encounter‘, Social & Cultural Geography 13(7):801–20.

Adri Albert de la Bruheze’s famous table showing the evolution of bicycle use in European Cities.

de la Bruheze, Adri A. Albert (1999) ‘Bicycle use in twentieth century Western Europe. The comparison of nine cities’. Available at velomondial.net.
Ebert, Anne-Katrin (2004) ‘Cycling towards the nation: the use of the bicycle in Germany and the Netherlands, 1880–1940‘, European Review of History: Revue européenne d’histoire, 11:3, 347-364.
Fincham, Ben (2006) ‘Bicycle messengers and the road to freedom‘, The Sociological Review, 54: 208-222.
Furness, Zack (2007) ‘Critical Mass, Urban Space and Vélomobility‘, Mobilities, 2:299-319.
Horton, Dave (2006) ‘Environmentalism and the bicycle‘, Environmental Politics, 15:41-58.
Jones, Phil (2012) ‘Sensory indiscipline and affect: a study of commuter cycling‘, Social & Cultural Geography, 13:645-658.
Jungnickel, Katrina and Aldred, Rachel (2013) ‘Cycling’s Sensory Strategies: How Cyclists Mediate their Exposure to the Urban Environment‘, Mobilities, 9:2, 238-255.
Koglin, Till (2014) ‘Vélomobility and the politics of transport planning‘, GeoJournal, DOI: 10.1007/s10708-014-9565-7.
Kuipers, Giselinde (2012) ‘The rise and decline of national habitus: Dutch cycling culture and the shaping of national similarity‘, European Journal of Social Theory, 16(1):17-35.
Latham, Alan and Wood, Peter (2015) ‘Inhabiting infrastructure: exploring the interactional spaces of urban cycling‘, Environment and Planning A, 47:300–319.
Larsen, Jonas (2014) ‘(Auto)Ethnography and cycling‘, International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 17:59-71.
Lugo, Adonia (2013) ‘CicLAvia and human infrastructure in Los Angeles: ethnographic experiments in equitable bike planning‘, Journal of Transport Geography, 30:202–207.
McIlvenny, Paul (2013) ‘The Joy of Biking Together: Sharing Everyday Experiences of Vélomobility‘, Mobilities, 10:55-82.

Paul McIlvenny uses video mobile methods to explore the socialities of group cycling.

Oldenziel, Ruth and de la Bruhèze, Adri A. Albert (2011) ‘Contested Spaces Bicycle Lanes in Urban Europe, 1900–1995‘, Transfers 1(2), 29-49.
Rosen, Paul (1993) ‘The Social Construction of Mountain Bikes: Technology and Postmodernity in the Cycle Industry‘, Social Studies of Science, 23:479-513.
Spinney, Justin (2009) ‘Cycling the City: Movement, Meaning and Method‘, Geography Compass, 3:817–835.
Stehlin, John (2014) ‘Regulating Inclusion: Spatial Form, Social Process, and the Normalization of Cycling Practice in the USA‘, Mobilities, 9:1, 21-41.
Steinbach, Rebecca et al. (2011) ‘Cycling and the city: A case study of how gendered, ethnic and class identities can shape healthy transport choices‘, Social Science & Medicine, 72:1123-1130.
Stoffers, Manuel (2012) ‘Cycling as heritage. Representing the history of cycling in the Netherlands‘, The Journal Of Transport History, 33:1, 92-114.
Tironi, Martin (2014) ‘(De)politicising and Ecologising Bicycles‘, Journal of Cultural Economy, DOI: 10.1080/17530350.2013.838600.

Cycling projects and programmes

Webpage of the Cycle Boom project

Cycling researchers