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Socio-Cycle: Exploring the socio-cultural significance of cycling in an Irish regional city

Socio-Cycle researchers with representatives from Cork City Council, Cork Environmental Forum and the Cork Cycling Campaign

The Challenge

The OECD (2022) urges Ireland to rethink its transport policies, moving away from car dependency towards ‘sustainable accessibility’, which values proximity, densification, slowness, and local living over urban sprawl, high mobility, distance, and speed. Shifting from car-centrism to sustainable transport systems requires radical action by Government and local authorities to design and promote creative, imaginative policies that make large-scale behavioural change possible. 

Cycling is key to this shift and delivers on multiple UN Sustainable Development Goals. Cycling: is affordable and facilitates access to education, employment, and social/community participation (Goal 1); improves health and well-being (Goal 3); uses renewable human power, thereby reducing individuals’ energy dependencies (Goal 7); encourages governments to develop affordable, accessible active travel infrastructure (Goal 9); makes cities more inclusive, safer, healthier, and more sustainable (Goal 11); promotes ethical and sustainable consumption through bike reuse and repair, bikesharing, and e-cycling (Goal 12); and reduces carbon emissions (Goal 13)(See https://unric.org/en/sustainable-development-goals-cycling).

Through ISS21 and in partnership with Cork Environmental Forum and Cork Cycling Campaign, this study sought to develop social scientific knowledge about cycling as a social practice, focusing on Cork as a case study of an Irish regional city, with a view to informing pro-cycling policy.

 

The Research

Research into cycling practices has been dominated by – and limited by – a technical, functional approach to understanding how people get from A to B. However, efficiency is not the only reason why people choose to cycle and therefore understanding the socio-cultural and emotional dimensions of cycling is important for designing effective pro-cycling policies. Our research sought to contribute new social scientific knowledge about the sensorial, affective, social, cultural, and environmental dimensions of cycling experiences, which are hitherto under-researched both in Ireland and internationally. 

​​The research design was based on a mixed methods approach. Data was collected using three methods:   

  • An online survey examining attitudes towards and experiences of cycling in the Cork metropolitan area;   
  • In-depth interviews with people who have experience of cycling in the city;
  • A novel method of recording narrated journeys with cycling participants, who recorded a particular journey of their choosing using a video camera attached to their bicycle. After the journey, the participants were invited to narrate their experience of the journey as they watched the video with the interviewer. The aim was to capture the cycling experience using a storytelling, autobiographical approach.

Alongside the research study, the team also produced the Socio-Cycle Symposium (February, 2023).

 

The Impact 

The project’s impact is evident in several domains.

  1. Collaboration: 

 

The project fostered meaningful partnerships at local, national and international levels. Collaborating with Cork Environmental Forum and Cork Cycling Campaign was vital to the project’s success, connecting us with a highly active network of cycling activists across Ireland who advocate for pro-cycling policy. With the partners, we produced the first ever symposium in Ireland that explored cycling from a social scientific perspective. Though many activists had limited academic experience, the team encouraged and supported them to present through fun formats such as the “Policy Fishbowl” and “Lightning Talks”. This created a unique research- and practice-informed discursive space where activists, policymakers, academics, and planners could interact (See https://cyclist.ie/2023/02/socio-cycle-conference-a-serious-success-cyclist-ie-report/).  

The project also influenced local policy development. Through collaboration with Cork City Council, the symposium provided a platform for cycling advocates and policymakers to share insights. Notably, the Lord Mayor of Cork, Cllr Dr Kieran McCarthy, funded a briefing report for the City Council based on the symposium's presentations, allowing direct impact on local policy (Hogan, Jeffers and Nagle, 2024).

The symposium also enabled international connectivity. The Keynote Address was delivered by international cycling expert, Dr Meredith Glaser – CEO of Urban Cycling Institute, University of Amsterdam and now Professor of Cycling at Ghent University – to a packed City Hall Council Chambers. Dr Glaser also acted as consultant on the project and she invited us to the Urban Cycling Institute’s Cycling Research Board Annual Meeting (CRBAM) in Amsterdam in October 2022, thereby allowing us to meet with an experienced group of international cycling and transport researchers. We were subsequently invited to showcase our research as ‘good practice’ to a group of cycling policy experts at the University of Utrecht. We hope to attend the Cycling and Society conference in Porto in September 2024 to reconnect with international researchers and to present cycling research that we are now developing for publication in academic journals. 



  1. Student engagement

 

Engaging with students became an important dimension of our work. We hosted a Government and Political Science student, Ross Madden, through the UCC Community Academic Research Links (CARL) initiative, who worked with us on designing questions for the survey inspired by European good practices. We also supported an Irish student, Nieve Greene, to undertake her Masters thesis on university students’ cycling practices. We also presented our research to the UCC Co-Operative Society on their invitation as several of their members are interested in cycling research and advocacy. One of the students, AJ Nagle, subsequently interned with us to produce a policy brief with Cork City Council. Recently we also presented our research to students on the University Wide Sustainability module (UW0005).



  1. Knowledge production and dissemination 

 

A core objective was to develop new social scientific knowledge about cycling practices in Ireland and this was achieved through the research and disseminated outputs including: 

  • Hogan, E. and Jeffers, B. (2023) A sense of freedom: Exploring everyday experiences of cycling in an Irish regional city. Cork: Institute for Social Science in the 21st Century, University College Cork. DOI:33178/10468/15138
  • Socio-Cycle (2023)[Short Film] Available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XL8nLsBnx4E
  • Hogan, E. and Jeffers, B. (2023) Socio-Cycle Launch [Short Film] Available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dswcqO3Ces
  • Hogan, E., Jeffers, B. and Nagle, A.J. (2024) Socio-Cycle Policy Briefing Cork: Cork City Council

The team is delighted to note that the Socio-Cycle project was specially selected by the Irish Research Council as an exemplar of impactful, community-engaged research and profiled on its website and social media as inspiration for future applicants. (https://research.ie/impact/laureate/dr-eileen-hogan-socio-cycle-exploring-the-socio-cultural-significance-of-cycling-in-an-irish-regional-city/). 

 

For More Information

 

Project webpage: https://www.ucc.ie/en/iss21/researchprojects/researchprojects/earlieriss21projects/socio-cycle/ 

Contact: Dr Eileen Hogan, e.hogan@ucc.ie 

Becci Jeffers, rebecca.jeffers@ucc.ie 

Cork Cycling Campaign, https://corkcyclingcampaign.com/ 

Cork Environmental Forum, https://environmentalforum.ie/ 

It was with great pleasure that I was able to attend the Socio-Cycle Cycling Symposium in Cork. As we gathered to discuss the future of cycling in our vibrant city, I was once again reminded of the transformative power that bicycles hold. Our streets, once dominated by motor vehicles, are gradually evolving. Change, as we all know, can be complicated and take time.

Yet, even in the face of challenges, we find inspiration in the progress we have made. I extend my gratitude to Dr Eileen Hogan and Becci Jeffers, Lecturers in Social Policy, School of Applied Social Studies in UCC, whose vision brought us together for the symposium. Let us make this inaugural event the first of many, a catalyst for meaningful dialogue and action.

– Lord Mayor of Cork, Cllr Dr Kieran McCarthy

 

The Socio-Cycle Symposium hosted by University College Cork represents an important venue for showcasing how we can use the powerful lens of the humble bicycle to explore system change. By gathering different disciplines and both researchers and professions, the Symposium created a learning arena for knowledge sharing, forging new networks, and a fertile ground for innovation.

– Dr Meredith Glaser, CEO of the Urban Cycling Institute, University of Amsterdam, and Professor of Cycling at Ghent University

College of Arts, Celtic Studies & Social Sciences

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College Office, Room G31 ,Ground Floor, Block B, O'Rahilly Building, UCC

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