Policy seeks to support cycling as a form of sustainable and active travel, yet, cycling levels in the UK remain low and evidence about interventions mixed. Data from a qualitative sociological study is used here to explore the difference that cultural meanings make to cycling practices in four different English urban areas. Specifically, we discuss differences between places with established cycling cultures and those with newer cycling cultures. Drawing on concepts from practice theory we discuss the role that cultures of cycling play within the four places, and suggest how the meanings of cycling, including its association with other social identities, are connected to the materials and competences seen as necessary for cycling. Our research highlights the embedding of transport in local as well as national cultures, and the associated need for policy-makers to take culture seriously in considering how to shift transport practices.

This paper explores what bicycle parking strategies tell us about the place of mobility objects in contemporary urban streetscapes. It examines the bicycle's liminality by combining approaches from practice theory with Mary Douglas' concept of 'matter out of place'. Much research on cycling has concentrated on the bicycle in movement, yet in our research, based in four relatively high-cycling English urban areas, a common theme was concern about the bicycle when not in use.Bicycles at rest were perceived as threatened or threatening, risky or at-risk; affected by theft, vandalism, the weather, official and familial disapproval. In the article, we link this to the tenuous place of urban cycling in England; while bicycle ownership is widespread, everyday cycling remains marginalised and this shapes the place of the bicycle resting on city streets, in homes and in workplaces. Bicycles waiting for their owners are often 'matter out of place'. This is seen within the context of broader motorised landscapes which have made driving easier through locating driving competences in the car itself, while comparable cycling competences remain on the outside -with the cyclist.

Negotiating mobile places between 'leisure' and 'transport': a case study of two group cycle rides Please note -this is a 'pre-peer review' draft, a revised version of this paper is in press and will be published by the journal Sociology. Please contact Rachel Aldred for more information. AbstractThis paper explores how group cycle rides produce particular types of mobile places, involving distinctive forms of public sociability and of re-making local environments. Our paper focuses on weekend group leisure riding, a mobility practice where the main aim of participants may be 'leisure' but most infrastructure used is designated for 'transport', generating distinctive purposes and practices. We discuss two such rides, one from Hull into the East Yorkshire countryside and one in London. Data (field notes, visual and GPS records) is drawn upon to analyse positioning and communication, comparing and contrasting the two rides. External (including motor traffic flow and route type) and internal (including group composition and experience) factors shape the relationship between the riders and their ride, and hence the space that they co-create. Cyclists riding in groups create flexible social spaces, which variously challenge, mimic and adapt to the dominance of motor traffic on such routes.

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While much discussion of art practice within research and university contexts tends to draw from 'practice-led' or 'practice-based' research, those practices outside the visual arts that deploy art-related methods and techniques often sit uncomfortably within other disciplines and struggle to be accounted for within official university accountabilities. This situation creates a divide between visual art accountable practices and those that do not fit. It is the latter category we wish to explore. As ethnographic researchers within cultural studies and sociology, the process of making and thinking through art-based methods is an integral part of doing research. Through the interdisciplinary process we seek to explore overlaps between traditional and non-traditional modes of making, presenting and transmitting knowledge to audiences.As this special issue observes, art and ethnography have a long, interconnected and sometimes tacit history. In this article we explore the interrelationship between methods, transitions and transmissions as a way in which to understand both the traditions. Both art and ethnography involve processes of transmission and translation from the fieldwork or studio to the reader/ gallery. We will focus upon this issue of transmission between methods to final outcome and the types of accountabilities and frameworks.While much discussion of art practice within research and university contexts tends to draw from 'practice-led' or 'practice-based' research (Candy 2006; Sullivan 2010), those practices outside the visual arts that deploy art related methods and techniques often sit uncomfortably within other disciplines and struggle to be accounted for within official university systems. This situation creates a divide between visual art accountable practices and those that do not fit. It is the latter category we wish to explore. As ethnographic researchers within cultural studies and sociology, the process of making and thinking through art is an integral part of doing research. Through the interdisciplinary process we seek to push boundaries between traditional and nontraditional modes of making, presenting and transmission to audiences.Although some are reluctant to embrace changes borne of the affordances of digital media, many others favour the transformative potential of new forms of attentiveness to understanding, evoking and provoking the social world (Back 2012a(Back , 2012bBeer and Burrows 2007; Lury 2012). Yet, and possibly because of this, methodological entanglements remain at the forefront of interdisciplinary discussions. Drawing on two projects that blur art and ethnography we set out to explore the possibilities and consequences of an expanded digital and material landscape for thinking about new forms and modes of social description and describers.In exploring the entanglements between art and ethnography within the context of transmission and storytelling, this article has two aims. First, it seeks to locate these questions in recent discussions around the role of new qualitati...