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Cycling Beyond Boundaries: Gender, Safety, and Family Roles in Child-Escorting Mobilities

par Pelgrims, Claire
Référence T2M Conference “Mobility Alternatives – Alternative Mobilities” (23: 4-7 November: TU Eindhoven)
Publication Non publié, 2025-11-06

Communication à un colloque

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Résumé :

Cycling is one of the alternative forms of mobility that is currently being promoted the most in Europe with a view to reducing greenhouse gas emissions from transport. Yet, bicycles are gendered ‘attributes’ and emotionally invested objects central to micro-practices that reflect dominant norms of femininity and masculinity. Over the past decade, the diversification of bicycles and accessories has paved the way for new gendered uses and tactics. This evolution democratises cycling, modulates its sporting dimension, and creates novel assemblages of bicycles and cyclists.This presentation analyses the tensions arising from the aesthetic relationship, linking bodily sensoriality and affectivity, between the body and the bicycle, which challenge dominant gender norms. It particularly focuses on child-escorting practices as mobilities that crystallise risks related to bodily integrity, gender roles, and family dynamics.Based on in-depth and ride-along interviews with 13 daily cyclists in and around Montreuil, and 27 interviews with bicycle experts (including dealers, repairers, and members of cycling associations) from Grenoble, Lausanne, Montreuil, and Strasbourg, the research nuances the evolution of equipment and the aesthetic relationship to bicycles within local material cultures. By describing specific pieces of equipment and protective ‘skins’, the presentation highlights affective investments in cycling objects and the role of bicycles in fostering a renewed ethic of care within alternative mobilities. Moving away from the car system’s safety reference, parents adapt equipment to secure children within varied equipment trajectories across the four French and Swiss contexts studied.