The latest issue of Area is available on Wiley Online Library.
Click past the break to view the full table of contents.
Area Content Alert: Volume 44, Issue 1 (March 2012)
January 24, 2012
Leave a Comment » | 
Area, Content Alert | Tagged: action, affective, Andrea Berardi, Anna R Davies, anticipation, assemblages, Beth Bee, bodies, Carey-Ann Morrison, Climbing, communication, consumption, cycling, Dartmoor, disaster risk reduction, embodied, embodiment, emergency, emotional geographies, Exploration, Fieldwork, Geoff A Wilson, geographic research, geographical imagination, governance, GPS, Guyana, Heather Buckingham, heterosexuality, Himalayas, Home, human geography, human–animal relations, Ian C Fuller, indigenous geographies, interdisciplinary, international marriage, interviews, Ireland, Jake Rom D Cadag, James Evans, Jayalaxshmi Mistry, JC Gaillard, Jessica Pape, Jon Shaw, Katrina Brown, Kelvin Mason, knowledge, knowledges, Kye Askins, Lakhbir Jassal, learning, location, Louise Ansell, love, materiality, Mike Kesby, Mobilities, more-than-representational, Mountain Rescue, mountain spaces above 8000 metres, New Zealand, non-migrant, Oliver Dunnett, outdoor access, outdoor education, outdoors, Participant observation, participation, participatory 3-dimensional mapping, participatory video, Paul Barratt, Pauline Couper, Peter Sunley, Phil Jones, Philippines, Physical Geography, practice, qualitative GIS, qualitative methodologies, Rachel Dilley, Rachel Pain, reflection, regional geography, Representation, Richard Yarwood, rock climbing, routine, rurality, Russell Hitchings, Ruth Doyle, Singapore, social constructivism, social enterprise, solicited diaries, Stefan Bouzarovski, Steven Pinch, survey evidence, sustainability transition, sustainable production, teaching, Time-space, Tom Slater, training space, transdisciplinary, transnational masculinities, UK, United Kingdom, video ethnography, visioning, walking, Yi’En Cheng | 
Permalink
Posted by Wil Stobbart
Cycling Geographies and the Tour de France
July 19, 2011by Fiona Ferbrache
It is that time of year again when le Tour de France makes its circumnavigation of the country, temporally transforming villages and towns along its route. This mega-event is global in scale, not least through the media attention that it receives; you may have seen the spectacle on television, and read about it in the newspaper or online. Swapping my academic hat for a yellow cap, last week I stood cheering with my neighbours as we watched the peloton pass within 1km of our village. Normal life was postponed for a day as we designed a banner, set up a trestle table laden with sunflowers and feasted on local produce. For us, the Tour provided an opportunity to celebrate local and regional culture as a village community.
There are many ways through which the Tour de France is celebrated. Prudhomme, the Tour’s director claims that the sport of cycling remains popular “because the bicycle is regaining its place at the heart of many cities…. Cycling will undoubtedly have a glowing future if the link can once again be made between the bike Mr Everyman uses and that of the sport’s champions” (le Roch, 2011). Academic interest in cycling perhaps has a glowing future too. This month’s Area publishes two commentaries on cycling (Cupples, 20011, Koglin, 2011) (see also Cupples & Ridley, 2008, Spinney, 2010) while the forthcoming RGS-IBG conference includes a session entitled “New perspectives on walking and cycling”.
If the Tour does not encourage you to don a yellow jersey or cycle up your nearest mountain, then perhaps it may inspire you to explore emerging geographic literatures on cycling.
Cupples, J. (2011) Cyclists, environmentalists and equitable urban ecologies: a response to Koglin. Area. 43.2 pp.228-230
Cupples, J. & Ridley, E. (2008) Towards a heterogeneous environmental responsibility: sustainability and cycling fundamentalism. Area. 40.2 pp.254-264
Koglin, T. (2011) Planning for cycling = planning for equity: a response to Cupples and Ridley ‘Towards a heterogeneous environmental responsibility: sustainability and cycling fundamentalism’ (2008) Area. 43.2 pp.225-227
Le Roch, G. (2011) “The only rule is that there are no rules”. Interview with Christian Prudhomme in Le Tour de France 2011 Official Programme. pp.64-66
RGS-IBG Annual Conference programme
Spinney, J. (2009) Cycling the city: movement, meaning and method. Geography Compass 3.2 pp.817-835
Official Tour de France website (in which one can view the geology of France on each state
Leave a Comment » | Cultural Geography, General, Social Geography | Tagged: bicycle, cycling, local culture, mega-event, sustainable transport, Tour de France, urban cycling | Permalink
Posted by fionaferbrache
Cycling: transport, ‘new’ mobilities and Le Tour de France
July 20, 2010by Fiona Ferbrache
Lance Armstrong riding for Astana in Le Tour, 2009
Today, I write from an altitude of 1800metres near the Col du Tourmalet in the French Pyrénées, where I excitedly await arrival of this year’s Tour de France. 2010 marks the centenary of Le Tour in the Pyrénées and the route through the mountains is particularly challenging this year.
Cycling, as a form of transport and observable mobility, provides an example of the ‘new’ mobilities concept discussed by Shaw and Hesse (2010) in TIBG. Their paper argues that while transport geography and ‘mobilities’ have tended to be studied separately, “there ought to be a closer working” between the two. Following Shaw and Hesse, mobility lends a cultural-geographic perspective to Le Tour by providing a framework for exploring the ways in which it is practiced, experienced and embodied. Such representations of Le Tour construct it as more than a cycle race and help us think about it as ‘a way of being in the world’ for riders, teams of technicians and medics, media persons and spectators.
One link between this epic race and cycling as transport is the enthusiasm that people express by purchasing or climbing onto their own bikes around this time. Consider, for example, how retail bike sales rose following the success of the British cycling squad in the 2008 Olympics (see, Thompson, 2008).
It is not long now until the helicopters, police motorbikes, journalists and leading rider(s) will descend on this peaceful mountainside…just long enough to chalk my favourite cyclist’s name onto the road in support.
Thompson, J. (2008) Retail: The real Olympic winners. The Independent. 27 August, 2008
Shaw, J. & Hesse, M. (2010) Transport, geography and the ‘new’ mobilities. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers. 35,3. 305-312
Le Tour de France – official website, 2010
Leave a Comment » | Cultural Geography, General | Tagged: 'New' mobilities, cycling, French Pyrenees, Le Tour de France, Transport geography | Permalink
Posted by fionaferbrache
More than just getting from A to B – experiences of cycling in the city
November 4, 2009
By Jenny Lunn
Promoting cycling as a form of urban transport is lauded by politicians and planners as one way of creating sustainable cities. Despite efforts to establish more cycle lanes and networks, Britain’s cities are still not bike-friendly environments and anyone who takes to the saddle needs to be “a rugged fearless individual, wholly responsible for your destiny”, according to Janice Turner in an article in The Times.
Justin Spinney’s research focuses on urban cycling in a western context. His latest article in Geography Compass, suggests that most geographical research into cycling has focused on why people choose that particular mode of transport to get from A to B and what routes they take. Instead, he draws attention to a neglected area: the line between A and B and the experience of travelling. He seeks to draw transport geography into a dialogue with cultural geography by proposing different research methods for investigating “less tangible aspects of daily mobility”, in particular using video.
But I wonder what the video-journey of an average London cycle commuter would reveal. Two wheels having to share the tarmac with 18 metre long bendy buses; illogical one-way systems; drivers turning left without using their mirrors; the struggle to find a safe place to park your bike when you arrive at work; the stolen wheel when you return to collect your bike. Equally, it could show some of the bad behaviour of cyclists: listening to music on headphones; jumping red lights; using pavements; not wearing safety helmets. Spinney’s proposed research methodology could reveal as much about the state of society as about the experience of mobility.
Read the article by Janice Turner in The Times
Leave a Comment » | Cultural Geography, Social Geography, Urban Geography | Tagged: cycling, mobility, movement, urban transport, video | Permalink
Posted by jclunn
