Unruly Users: Cycling Governance in Context

Description

After a sharp decline occurred during the 1960s, the modal split
of individuals cycling rebounded in many European cities. From
the 1970s onwards, many urban residents rediscovered the
bicycle as a means of transport. In this paper, I conceptualize this
turnaround of cycling as a sociotechnical change. In a wider
historical context, I examine the role of users in this
transformation. More specifically, I scrutinize the interplay
between bicycle users and cycling governance. To this end, I
discuss three prominent STS approaches – that can be taken to
conceptualize the role of users in sociotechnical change – and
note their weaknesses and strengths. These approaches are Social
Construction of Technology (SCOT), Framing Production (FP)
and Multi-level Perspective (MLP). In my analysis, I
demonstrate that each of the presented approaches does not
provide an appropriate way to conceptualize users under the
specific circumstances that occurred during the cycling
turnaround in Graz in the 1970s and 1980s. Against this
backdrop, I argue that analysing sociotechnical change using
existing analytical frameworks is not wrong, but blind. To
overcome this shortcoming, researchers need to allow for more
openness in the research design. By applying a qualitative
approach, researchers can gain a better appreciation of the
contingency of the unruly relationship between users and cycling
governance.

Period	18 Aug 2020
Event title	EASST/4S 2020 conference: european association for the study of science and technology
Event type	Conference
Location	Prag, Czech RepublicShow on map
Degree of Recognition	International