Locality and environmental differences in cycling: symbolic struggle between small-town transport subcultures in Finland

Abstract

Infrastructure efficiency and ‘urban access’ are emphasized in social and geographical studies on cycling, revealing important information about the social aspects of cycling. The cultural transition that has occurred with the spread of urban cycling, not only as a practical mode of transportation but as an identity structure, has gained attention recently. This article discusses the spatial dynamics of the sustainable transport transition by exploring how an urban cycling culture is adopted in a remote provincial town in Finland. To do so, it focuses on the local conditions influencing cycling identity as a transport subculture in a city with an emerging cycling culture. The approach requires separation of ‘sustainability’ into two dimensions: the technical or rationally calculated concept and the culturally constructed symbol. This enables an analytical distinction between the rational and emotional aspects of environmental concerns. The bicycle is considered an important symbol of the green transition and low carbon regimes. The theoretical framework employed is based on the tension between the different rationales of transport subcultures and how that tension is shaped by the centre/periphery relation that links the subject with a larger discussion on a spatially just green transition. Through 15 in-depth interviews with cyclists and analysis of SMS texts on cycling published in a local newspaper, the article uncovers how the dynamics of different transport subcultures are affected by the specific local cultural context. The site-specific thematic analysis shows a spatially changing analytical frontier that highlights local competition for hegemony over the environmental agenda. It clearly shows that while the general conflict between transport subcultures sustains the scalar transition, its participants also exploit this traditional centre/periphery setting either by complaining about the slowness of development or by criticising definitions of good transportation which come from outside.