social cultural dimensions in the decline of everyday cycling in johannesburg

Social-cultural dimensions in the decline of everyday cycling in Johannesburg

NJOGU MORGAN, UNIVERSITY OF THE WITWATERSRAND

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BICYCLE BOOM IN JOHANNESBURG

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BICYCLE PARKING AT AN AIR SHOW

Municipal bicycle subsidies

“This committee is of opinion that a considerable number of the Council's employees could with

advantage perform their duties on bicycles, and think the best plan will be for the Council to grant these

officials a fixed allowance and allow them to find their own machines” (City of Johannesburg 1901,p.130).

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DECLINE

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THEORETICAL APPROACH: SOCIAL-CULTURAL DETERMINANTS OF EVERYDAY CYCLING

“Although I did save a lot of time while cycling, there

are disadvantages to cycling. There is nowhere to park near my company,

and I had to take a cab when meeting clients.

What would they think of me if I cycled up to them?” quoted in (Lu Rucai 2007,

p.29)

L“I'd rather cry in the back of a BMW

than smile on a bicycle”

(Wetherhold 2012).

Formation of cultural orientations towards cycling

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CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

Domain of culture production and change

Example Literatures

Bicycling experience Pleasant journeys encourage repeated use

Mobilities and actor-network theory

Nature of social system Differentiated political-economies encourage the use of certain transport modes over others

Consumption studies, science and technology studies

Changes to social system Sudden events (e.g. catastrophies) can de-legitimise certain transport modes

Transitions studies

Actor activities within structured social systems

Social actors can reproduce transport modes consciously social within logics of system or re-frame alternatively

Transition studies, sociology, science and technology studies

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APPROACH

“I'd rather cry in the back of a BMW than smile on a bicycle” (Wetherhold 2012).

Johannesburg, Beijing, Chicago and Amsterdam

Data collection

Archival researchInterviews with key informants

Participation and observationAnalysis of other studies - esp for secondary cases

Auto-ethnographic approaches

Why the decline?

Consumption, objects, social status

Conspicuous consumption is not a “conscious act, but rather a standard of decency that exerts social pressure on the behaviour

of individuals.” (Trigg 2001, p.113)

Social stratification, dignity, communication, social pressure

Bicycle as status symbol

Bicycle cost late 19th

century: 20 pounds each vs Highest working class wages (1890-1914): Just over 10 pounds a month

“the wives of the Randlords [mining magnates] lived like duchesses in fine houses...[they] always showed themselves at their smartest in silks, satins, jewels, hats and bonnets to the lesser people who gaped and went home exhilarated”(The Star 1966a).

Bicycles as objects of desire

Bicycles as objects of white racial identity

“...representations have been received from the Committee of the Rand Pioneers (1) as to the

desirability of exercising some special control over native cyclists in order to check cycle thefts, and (2) as to nuisance caused in the streets by the reckless riding of native cyclists” (City of Johannesburg 1905,

p.130)

Erosion of bicycle as status symbol

Decline in bicycle prices Diffusion to working classes

Upper classes switch to automobile

Automobile as symbol of class and race

“As soon as a native sits in a car, he thinks he has the same rights and privileges, and that he must be treated as a white

man. The whole road belongs to him, and everyone else must either stop, or hop out of his way, and if you don't, you must

either risk either being run over or covered up in the dust of his car” (Ueckermann 1928, p.17).

Implications

Road design for automobiles Marginalising bicycle users in road rules

Consumer purchasing towards automobiles

Downward spiral

Downward spiral

Thompson (1990, p.189) argues that under the leadership of Hendrik Frensch Verwoed as Prime Minister of South Africa

from 1958 to 1966 “apartheid became the most notorious form of racial domination that the postwar world has known.”

“...in the interests of road safety it is undesirable for children to ride their bicycles through heavy traffic to produce them at the

Licensing Department Offices for registration and licensing”(City of Johannesburg 1964, pp.1-2)

Concluding remarks

njogumorgan@gmail.com