Sacrificing entitlement for self-preservation: ‘privatising vulnerability’ as a cyclist in Dublin

Abstract

In this paper, I present and explain the process of ‘privatising vulnerability’ that cyclists in Dublin engage in as a means of coping with structural conditions of ‘precarious entitlement’ to public space. First, I introduce and situate my study in relation to seminal work exploring cycling mobilities. Second, I describe the context of the study–Dublin, Ireland. Third, I explain the classical grounded theory methodology and approach to qualitative interview data collection employed throughout the research. Fourth, I briefly posit the core category of the grounded theory–precarious entitlement–so that privatising vulnerability can be understood as a process of response and one element of ‘precarious entitlement theory’. Fifth, I delineate the process of privatising vulnerability, and its four variations: anticipating disregard, waiving entitlement, tolerating transgression, and precautionary transgressing. Sixth, I conclude that privatising vulnerability can be understood as a process of pragmatic adaptation and submission to conditions of domination–in particular, to the spatial domination of automobility. Following these perspectives, I delineate the unique contributions privatising vulnerability can make to understandings of cycling experience and practice and toward wider matters of mobility justice.