"The modern bicycle as we know it today was developed in England in the 1880s. A decade later, cycling was already a popular spectator sport and a recreational fashion across western society. Women's rights, class mobility and a modern spirit of individualism helped fuel this bicycle boom. In China, on the other hand, the bicycle's ubiquity reflected state-controlled social uniformity. Briefly, it became a symbol of resistance in Tiananmen Square in the 1980s, but crushed by tanks it later turned into a downward marker of class with millions scrapped. In the 21st century, the bicycle is enjoying a global resurgence. It is favoured as a sustainable form of transport, while also reinventing itself as a chic and sportive fashion object, and a generic protest vehicle. With contradictory strands like these, the bicycle's cultural history is a rich subject for cross-cultural study. Beginning with the technical history of the bicycle's invention, and the socio-economic factors that precipitated it, the main focus of this book is the ever-changing cultural significance of the bicycle as an object, and of bicycling as a shifting, but ever popular social practice around the world. "--


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    Title :

    The bicycle - towards a global history


    Contributors:

    Publication date :

    2015


    Size :

    xiii, 194 Seiten


    Remarks:

    25 cm
    Illustrationen
    Includes bibliographical references (pages 179-186) and index



    Type of media :

    Book


    Type of material :

    Print


    Language :

    English



    Classification :

    DDC:    629.227/2
    BKL:    71.59 Kultursoziologie: Sonstiges / 55.20 Straßenfahrzeugtechnik
    RVK:    ZO 4340



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