Precarious entitlement to public space & utility cycling in Dublin

Abstract

Diverse social science research investigating the experience of cycling mobilities in relation to driving mobilities strongly indicates that matters of spatial entitlement are a central theme in the confluence (and conflict) of these mobilities, particularly in car-dominated contexts. However, while the experience of this meeting of mobilities from a cyclist point of view has been well addressed in an empirical and evocative manner, there appears to be a relative lack of available empirically grounded theory to make sense of such scenarios. Drawing on grounded theory research and interviews with utility cyclists in Dublin, we present the phenomenon of ‘precarious entitlement’ to public space that cyclists in Dublin must negotiate and its associated properties: insecure space, spatial disregard and police neglect. Precarious entitlement as a category provides a theoretical account of cycling experience in Dublin that consolidates a concern with right and risk as a mobile subject travelling in and through public space. Furthermore, this category indicates a unique structural vulnerability and problem of ‘misrecognition’ that utility cyclists in Dublin–and potentially beyond–may encounter and contend with.