Bicycling for mutual aid: centering racialized and 2SLGBTQ+ cyclists in Toronto

ABSTRACT

Within the context of a (post-)COVID-19 pandemic world, there is an urgent need to critically explore how bicycle-related activities may contribute to an environmentally sustainable and equitable world for vulnerable populations. In recent years, mutual aid projects have surged globally, with scholars pointing to the COVID-19 pandemic as a key driver of communities being forced to respond to the unfolding social and environmental crises, alongside state abandonment. In this paper, we discuss how cycling has been taken up by communities disproportionately harmed by colonial systems. Using a decolonial feminist participatory action research approach, the authors collaborated with The Bike Brigade, a non-profit bicycle delivery organization that partners with mutual aid organizations. Using arts-based methods and semi-structured interviews, we draw on the perspectives of 2SLGBTQ+ and racialized cyclists who volunteer with The Bike Brigade. A key theme of the research was the unique way in which research colleagues used bicycles to participate in community care by embodying mutual aid values: community thriving, resource reallocation and solidarity. Thus, this paper puts forth mutual aid as a potential framework for understanding radical mobility practices to foster community care.

KEYWORDS:

• Mutual aid
• bicycles
• bicycle justice
• participatory action research
• decolonial feminist methodology
• arts-based methods

Acknowledgments

This research was funded by a MITACS Accelerate grant (Nachman) with contributions from The Bike Brigade; a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Insight Grant titled, ‘Wheels of Change? Exploring “Bicycles for Development” for Women and Girls in the (Post-)Pandemic Contexts of Canada, Uganda, and Nicaragua’ (number 435-2021-1188; PI: Hayhurst) and the Canadian Foundation for Innovation Grant [number 2019-0455; PI: Hayhurst].

The authors would like to express great thanks to The Bike Brigade community for their support throughout this research project. We also thank the research colleagues, without whom, this research would not be possible.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Two-Spirit refers to a culturally specific identity for Indigenous people whose gender identity, spiritual identity and/or sexual orientation is both female and male spirited (Government of Canada, 2022).

2. Racialization is the process by which people have been classified by race, despite no biological evidence that race-based differences exist between humans. By definition, White people are racialized, however, White people do not face the same consequences of racialization as do other racialized groups. The term ‘racialized’ refers to groups of people who have been socially constructed as ‘different’ and thus have been subject to discrimination based on characteristics such as skin colour, accents, names, citizenship, beliefs, etc. (Ontario Human Rights Commission, 2009).

3. Tallbear (2014) posited that research participants should be considered ‘colleagues’ instead of ‘subjects’ as a methodological approach to avoid treating colleagues as ‘data’ and instead as co-creators of knowledge.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Canada Foundation for Innovation [2019-0455]; Mitacs; Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council [2019-0455]; Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada [435-2021-1188].