Bike mobilities, democratic revival and the local fix

Nacima Baron

doi:10.4000/belgeo.36436

Abstract

This article explores the local political strategies associated with the implementation of sustainable bike policies in southern European cities. It combines geographical concepts and methods , on the one hand, and sustainable policy studies on the other hand, with the aim of highlighting the specificities of the Mediterranean political context of mobility transition. Using Valencia as a case study, it shows that tactical urbanism is being used to put sustainable mobilities on the local agenda. This justifies and embodies a change in municipal policy and politics after a decade of crisis. Sustainable mobility projects materialise and spatialise, in various ways, democratic values within public space. The article therefore studies the strategies employed to mark the urban territory with green mobility infrastructures (part 1); it reveals the construction of a discursive space that polarises local debates (part 2); it describes the symbolic reintegration of Valencia into a network of model cities (part 3). Such a strategy does not create an effective Mediterranean model of the cycle-friendly city, because it does not modify the structural organisation of space or the social representations that underpin current mobility practices (part 4).

Highlights

Indignados movement, emerged and took power in Madrid, Barcelona, Cadiz
44 This research emphasises the heuristic benefit of the Valencian case for understanding how mobilities can be used as an instrument for the transformation of space, of society and of local political models
The redefinition of mobility norms is being used to reinforce the assertive dimension of a political alternative

Summary

Introduction

Indignados movement (born in Puerta del sol), emerged and took power in Madrid, Barcelona, Cadiz. He analyses how politicians achieve or obtain public status by means of semiotic resources associated with the bicycle and gain an increased presence in the virtual sphere, and access to a broader audience His argument is that political actors use discourse to produce, reproduce and transform socially shared understandings and to (re)shape individual and collective identity. He gives numerous examples of politicians who evoke and invoke cycling through social media and create a community of practice in virtual space This is very helpful in conceptualising the rhetorical strategies employed by the new municipality to reshape the city's identity after its recent economic and political crisis and to create a Valencian (and supposedly Mediterranean) bicycle identity. The discursive registers are classified in order to explore the argumentative strategy and reveal the connections between different linguistic figures and arguments – statements, explanations, chronicles and narratives... – and their interplay with emotional, aesthetic, political and moral positionings

Putting Valencia back on the map: connecting mobilities and relationalities

2: A democratic and disciplined mobility: connecting mobilities with norms

28 Fourth moment

Conclusion