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To bike or not to bike: Cycloactivism in a perspective of actor-network theory
Fendrychová, Kristýna ; Stöckelová, Tereza (advisor) ; Brož, Luděk (referee)
In this diploma thesis I focus on the formation of urban cycling including heterogeneous participating actors - people, discourses, technologies, infrastructures and other materialities. I examine cyclists' relationships with their environment and describe asymmetries connected with the dominant status of automobilism in urban environment, and strategies for contesting this situation. I also focus on cyclo-activist discourse which plays an important role in the empowerment of cyclists in urban traffic. Mobilizing arguments of critical theory and the "right for the city" concept cyclo-advoacy strives to include as many citizens as possible in debate about public space and in this way support pro-cycling developments. From the perspective of actor-network theory (ANT) this strategy has limits due to its operation with stabilized social science categories and I argue that ANT could contribute a more nuanced arguments to cyclo-advocacy with detailed description of connections between cyclists and urban environment, focus on embodiment and emotions and highlighting the role of materialities. It could thereby provide a stronger argument for furthering the pro-cycling development. Key words: urban cycling, automobilism, actor-network theory (ANT), cycloadvocacy, critical theory, materiality
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Bicy-colonization: A symmetrical ethnography of the development project Kola pro Afriku (Czech Bikes for Gambian Schools)
Werner, Jan ; Stöckelová, Tereza (advisor) ; Brož, Luděk (referee)
This study is a symmetrical ethnography of the Czech development project Kola pro Afriku (Czech Bikes for Gambian Schools), which involves the collection, repairs, modification and shipment of old Czech bicycles to The Gambia. Once there, they are distributed to partner schools and offered to communing pupils. In my research, I mainly focus on the pivotal technology of the project, bicycles, and their performances. Drawing on classic ethnographies of development and (most importantly) on studies based on the actor-network theory (ANT), I gradually explore the bike collection process, their modifications and repairs, their shipment to The Gambia and their local operations. When doing so, I focus on the social topology of the bicycles and its transformations in the timespace. In this regard, the bicycles gradually appear as junk (i.e. a dysfunctional relict of stabilized networks), as a fluid collectivity and as individually fluid. Thereby, this study shows that technology transfers may lead not only to changes in the set of relations, of which the given object consists, but in the very modes, in which those relations arise. It is precisely these topological transformations that significantly contribute to the functioning of the project Kola pro Afriku. Key words: development cooperation,...
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Bicy-colonization: A symmetrical ethnography of the development project Kola pro Afriku (Czech Bikes for Gambian Schools)
Werner, Jan ; Stöckelová, Tereza (advisor) ; Brož, Luděk (referee)
This study is a symmetrical ethnography of the Czech development project Kola pro Afriku (Czech Bikes for Gambian Schools), which involves the collection, repairs, modification and shipment of old Czech bicycles to The Gambia. Once there, they are distributed to partner schools and offered to communing pupils. In my research, I mainly focus on the pivotal technology of the project, bicycles, and their performances. Drawing on classic ethnographies of development and (most importantly) on studies based on the actor-network theory (ANT), I gradually explore the bike collection process, their modifications and repairs, their shipment to The Gambia and their local operations. When doing so, I focus on the social topology of the bicycles and its transformations in the timespace. In this regard, the bicycles gradually appear as junk (i.e. a dysfunctional relict of stabilized networks), as a fluid collectivity and as individually fluid. Thereby, this study shows that technology transfers may lead not only to changes in the set of relations, of which the given object consists, but in the very modes, in which those relations arise. It is precisely these topological transformations that significantly contribute to the functioning of the project Kola pro Afriku. Key words: development cooperation,...
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To bike or not to bike: Cycloactivism in a perspective of actor-network theory
Fendrychová, Kristýna ; Stöckelová, Tereza (advisor) ; Brož, Luděk (referee)
In this diploma thesis I focus on the formation of urban cycling including heterogeneous participating actors - people, discourses, technologies, infrastructures and other materialities. I examine cyclists' relationships with their environment and describe asymmetries connected with the dominant status of automobilism in urban environment, and strategies for contesting this situation. I also focus on cyclo-activist discourse which plays an important role in the empowerment of cyclists in urban traffic. Mobilizing arguments of critical theory and the "right for the city" concept cyclo-advoacy strives to include as many citizens as possible in debate about public space and in this way support pro-cycling developments. From the perspective of actor-network theory (ANT) this strategy has limits due to its operation with stabilized social science categories and I argue that ANT could contribute a more nuanced arguments to cyclo-advocacy with detailed description of connections between cyclists and urban environment, focus on embodiment and emotions and highlighting the role of materialities. It could thereby provide a stronger argument for furthering the pro-cycling development. Key words: urban cycling, automobilism, actor-network theory (ANT), cycloadvocacy, critical theory, materiality
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