Themes of This Course
\n–Motornormativity
\nWhile this course is about the bicycle, it also has to be about the automobile.\u00a0 In 1967 the French author Bernard Charbonneau claimed that the automobile was the defining feature of modern society.\u00a0 That may be less so today with the advent of smart phones, but it is still worth thinking about.\u00a0 What has been the relation between the automobile and the bicycle?\u00a0 How can the bicycle exist in an environment that is dominated by the automobile?<\/p>\n
–Different Groups\/Different Meanings
\nOne of the core ideas of the field of STS is called the “social construction of technology,”\u00a0 which says that different groups see a technology differently.\u00a0 While a bike is one thing, it means different things to different groups of people.\u00a0 Bike scholar Melody Hoffmann calls the bike a “rolling signifier,” because its meaning changes “in different spaces, with different people, and in different cultures.”\u00a0 To develop successful programs to encourage people to bike, it is important to understand the different groups involved and the different meanings these groups attribute to it.<\/p>\n
–Geography, policy, history
\nWhy do countries and cities have such widely differing levels of urban bike ridership?\u00a0 Is it geography?\u00a0 Government policies?\u00a0 History?\u00a0 We will try to untangle this throughout the course.<\/p>\n
–How does change happen?
\nMany people want to change the world.\u00a0 In this course we will use the example of the bicycle and bicycle infrastructure to examine how change has happened.\u00a0 What role has politics played? What role have activists played?<\/p>\n