I’ve just had this paper accepted for the 2010 Cycling and Society Symposium in Oxford in September.

“Natterings” and “silly little things”: Informal encounters, everyday connections and local characters in cycle campaigning in Hull

This paper will draw on ethnographic and interview data on cycle campaigners in Hull (2010). It focuses on campaigners in both official and volunteer contexts, taking particular interest in the myriad of places, times and methods in and through which individuals do important work. While some of these practices take place in conventional meetings, many others occur in informal settings and at unusual times. Campaigners talk to people in the street. They stop to help strangers with punctures. They volunteer with different cycle groups in their spare time. They introduce people. They share news and tell of events. They make lists, keep records and write letters. This paper examines how “natterings” and “silly little things” serve to generate and reinforce critical connections between people, ideas and things. It reflects upon the role of cycle campaigners as “local characters” with deeply embedded knowledge of people, places and things that together make and sustain these networks. Emerson (2009) draws attention to ‘ordinary troubles’ to highlight the routine, boring and often trivialised interactions that help to explain more dramatic events. In this case, a focus on “natterings” and “silly little things” brings to light not only the mundane activities that underpin successful cycling campaigning but also the persistence, patience and relentless pressure necessary to make change happen.

Given that we have such a mix of visual data (videos and photos) it’s going to be interesting to think more about how we interpret these and what use they are for sociological research. Kat and I have a paper accepted that I will be presenting at the Vital Signs conference in Manchester in September – here’s a link to the abstract and we will be putting the slides and audio up on the “outputs” page after the conference.

I took this time lapse video on the morning of Wednesday 16th June – it was recording pictures while I was cycling and walking to Ferensway/Freetown Way junction, and from around 0:34 there’s an extract showing the camera recording traffic movement at the junction. The time lapse makes the traffic movements look like a stately ballet, and the other sensory experiences (noise and smell, principally) are stripped out. (Even using video, the camera’s ability to record noise is still limited). It looks quite different to how it felt, standing by the side of the road trying to make sure I recorded all the cyclists passing (in half an hour, I counted 121 cyclists), although the wide angle lens captures the size of the junction well.