Change Agents on Two Wheels: Cycling for Spatial Justice in Los Angeles

• In Event: 258 - Section on Racial and Ethnic Minorities Paper Session. Race, Class and Spatial Justice

Abstract

I use participant observation to examine activities of an all-female, Latina-led urban cycling collective in Los Angeles that works in creative ways to advocate for social issues. This collective's members aim to be "change agents" that heal - physically, emotionally and spiritually - minority communities in Los Angeles through advocacy that incorporates group bicycling, focusing on urban inequalities disproportionately affecting communities of color.
I draw upon the work of Henri Lefebvre, particularly his concepts relating to the "Right to the City" and the social constructions of space - perceived, conceived and lived - to understand how this bicycle collective uses urban cycling to embody space, promote its activist agenda, and create new ways of experiencing urban life. Specifically, I analyze how this collective uses the bicycle as an organizing tool around which members mobilize to fight gentrification. This paper thus offers a more complex discussion not only about resistance to gentrification, but also about our understanding of the scale of grassroots activism.
Preliminary findings show this collective is able to use cycling to connect with a broader coalition of like-minded activists and affinity micro-groups, and that collective cycling, as spatial practice, makes possible transformation on multiple scales. Regarding anti-gentrification efforts, I find that organized resistance is not merely reactionary, but rather entails pre-figurative action and visioning for space and community. This paper suggests new theoretical models for understanding “nesting empowerments” in social movements in which self-politicization and empowerment begin at the individual level and feed back into the group.

Author

• Jennifer Candipan, University of Southern California