Happiness and freedom in direct action: critical mass bike rides as ecstatic ritual, play, and temporary autonomous zones

ABSTRACT

Most leisure research does not consider collective action and social change, while most social movement research overlooks carnivality and spontaneity. A counter-example is the alternative bicycling movement critical mass (CM), a rebellious, liberatory leisure and cultural event. CM is goal-oriented and a libidinal expression of participant desire. This paper investigates CM’s production of happiness and freedom via three heterodox theories. Ecstatic rituals are repetitive, cathartic collective events that people engage in to express joy and flaunt convention. Political theories of play interpret individual’s physically-embodied, creative, and performative actions. Temporary autonomous zones are spatial locations of resistance to authority that evade state detection and suppression. CM – unlike standard bike races or conventional movement protest – transcends the limitations of physical exercise, lackadaisical leisure, and militant direct action. Instead it is a hybrid form of collective action, combining premeditated ritual, rebellious play, and mobile freedom-seeking.

KEYWORDS:

• Critical mass
• bicycles
• protest
• transportation
• ecstatic ritual
• play
• temporary autonomous zones (TAZ)

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. CM rides occurs internationally and have occurred in at least 575 cities (assessment of a crowd-sourced list of contemporary (October 2017) rides: http://criticalmass.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_rides).

2. Despite being ‘leaderless’, individuals do ‘organise’ within CM: arguing goals, creating propaganda, attracting future participants, and providing guidance and suggestion during events.

3. Unlike previous leisure scholarship using Bey (1991) – e.g. St. John (1997), Ross (2013) – I apply Bey to CM’s mobility (c.f. Bruzzone, 2012; Gilchrist & Ravenscroft, 2012).

4. Such ‘costumed’ riders attended during colder months, too, apparently indifferent to temperature.

5. He always returned to the seat safely each time.

6. I spoke to this man, expecting socially awkwardness or signs of mental disorder, but he was friendly and coherent.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Dana M. Williams

Dana Williams is associate professor of sociology at California State University, Chico and has research interests in social movements and social inequalities (e.g., class, gender, and race). Published work has appeared in Critical Sociology, Journal of Black Studies, Social Science Journal, and Contemporary Justice Review. Williams’s most recent book is Black Flags and Social Movements: A Sociological Analysis of Movement Anarchism (Manchester University Press, 2017), which is an international, comparative assessment of contemporary anarchist movements.