Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book examines cycling practices through the lens of an academic working in a Department of Social and Political Science. It is indebted to the opportunity provided by Leverhulme Trust International Academic Fellowship. The book focuses on to questions of research in social science. It explores some of the techniques used in the researches that inform the discussion of cycling as social practice. “Cycling”, or “riding a bicycle”, is a “black box term”. A sociology of velomobility must make the connections between work arising in transport studies, psychology, sports science, history and other disciplines. Few locations afford cycling spaces that are completely separated from interaction with motor traffic, and fewer still are those where motor traffic is subordinate to cycling.