An analysis of the evolution of equipment and the corporeal relationship to cycling over 25 years was carried out within a corpus of French and Swiss specialised magazines. This enabled us to grasp the different interfaces at which the aesthetic relationship between body and bike is constructed, and to prepare an interview grid for the 27 interviews with the resource person, which helped to nuance these developments at a local level. Mobile video-ethnography was then used to observe the equipment choices and positioning of over 1,300 cyclists, enabling an in-depth ethnographic analysis and the counting of a series of visual indicators for a statistical analysis of these different local scenes in which the players interact and together define local equipment norms.
These equipment choices are linked to specific contexts, but are also the subject of socialisation between peers. Local equipment standards are marked by fashion effects and aesthetic communities, and are adopted differently by individuals depending on their resources and ways within equipment trajectories. These norms are also differentiated by gender. In particular, the results highlight the persistence of binary stereotypes in the equipment choices of cyclists in all case studies. Cycling objects thus become indicators of gender identity, adopted un/consciously in relation to this expression of gender, which reinforces binary stereotypes, but above all have an impact on the sensitive experience of cycling and the transformation of bodies. Disparities can nevertheless be observed between cities: attachment to a piece of equipment in a gendered performance is itself shaped differently by local norms, particularly in relation to the valorisation of sport and leisure practices. The results also highlight how young people's affective attachment to certain types of 'vintage' bike can lead to the production of new equipment norms that break with the dominant gender order. These results were then confirmed by interviews with 13 cyclists in eastern Paris.
An analysis of the transnational evolution over 30 years of the recommendations for the design of cycle infrastructure, as well as interviews with people involved in this evolution, highlighted the gradual taking into account of a diversity of cyclists and practices, but also the changing expectations in terms of safety, sociability, body exposure and aesthetic experience that motivate it.
The 12 ride-along interviews with 9 daily cyclists in eastern Paris highlight how important it is to look at the aesthetical relationship to mobility infrastructure and the experienced world and unravel their gendered dimension in terms of values. These relationships are underlain by a tension between paradoxical values of (1) modern emancipation and (2) environmental consciousness. The latter helps build an understanding of the environment in the way it affects the health and quality of life of those within it. Through this tension, a reordering of these values opens a third way to resonate with mobility infrastructure, intensifying the aesthetical experience of movement assimilated with emancipation through the sensorial experience of the environment.
Finally, the interviews with 13 cyclists in eastern Paris did not confirm the positive impact of daily cycling on the use of public space in general. The interviews and focus groups held during the sessions to present the results with the people in charge of cycling policies and local associations highlighted the interest shown by local authorities in these issues, but the limited resources that can be allocated to them in a context where policies to promote cycling are underfunded.
On top of presentation to local stakeholders and cycling organisation at national and local levels, the project results were disseminated in international conference, workshop and seminars, and in local press articles and a podcast. The publication of the research papers will be accompanied by press release.
