TÜHI Research Seminar

Topic: “Brave women cycle”: verbal accounts of women’s strategies of care mobilities in Tallinn
Speaker: Maria Lindmäe
Moderator: Raili Nugin

Abstract:
In this paper that draws on the first insights from the VELOCARE research project, I examine gendered mobility standards regarding co-cycling as a form of care mobility in Tallinn, Estonia. Drawing on 13 interviews and shared bicycle rides, the study investigates how mothers who cycle navigate dominant mobility norms of ‘good mothering’. The first part of the paper shows that although cycling is widely promoted as an environmentally caring practice due to its low emissions, and as a form of self-care through physical activity, participants report experiencing criticism and traffic aggression, through which velomobility of care is framed as careless and irresponsible mothering. Drawing on feminist scholarship, I I argue that such mobility standards are profoundly gendered and serve as a discursive mechanism to reinforce dominant mobility cultures. However, mobilities are not only shaped by discursive constructions (Cresswell, 2010) but also by material and affective affordances that give meaning to the practice. The second part of the paper gazes into cycling mothers’ subtle, often habitual tactics through which gendered ideals of movement and mobility can be destabilized. I conclude by arguing that while such minor acts of transgression can help normalize women and children’s entitlement to urban space, a broader change in mobility cultures is needed to advance mobility justice.
***