social cultural dimensions in the decline of everyday cycling in johannesburg
TRANSCRIPT
Social-cultural dimensions in the decline of everyday cycling in Johannesburg
NJOGU MORGAN, UNIVERSITY OF THE WITWATERSRAND
2
BICYCLE BOOM IN JOHANNESBURG
3
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).
5
DECLINE
6
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
7
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
8
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)
