ABSTRACT
Adapting and developing an analytical framework developed by Lofland in his exploration of 1980s peace activism in the USA, the chapter outlines six distinct but non-exclusive theories of change that emerge from a large-scale study of activisms. Analysing cycling activism in relation to these categories enables not only a tool for academic understanding, but also one that enables reflection on activist processes and also as a diagnostic for specific campaigning, by identifying presuppositions held by target audiences. It identifies the difficulty of finding suitable analytical frameworks that address diversity in both forms of organising and the geographical and social diversity of cycle activism. It argues that overt oppositional activity is only one dimension of action and any modelling of cycle activism has to be able to account for the lifestyle choices embedded in everyday forms of resistance enacting a prefigurative politics.
