Reflections on a Wheely Workshop

Wheeled technologies create diverse possibilities for the human body, facilitating new forms of mobility, access, performance, and care. Their potential to not only influence but re-imagine health and wellbeing makes them an exciting focus for both academics, artists, and policy-makers. However, the ways in which they are used by individuals and communities depends on a range of influences, from place-based factors to early childhood experiences, as well as different networks of care and support. 

A one-day workshop, hosted by the Moving Bodies Lab, led by Prof. Cassie Phoenix, explored research and creative practice that engaged with an array of wheeled technologies; bicycles, wheelchairs, skateboards and prams. Joined by a varied group of attendees including representatives from local authorities, community cycling providers, and academics spanning a range of disciplines, we considered questions such as how these technologies might afford different experiences of space, mobility, and performance? What opportunities and challenges do they offer to planning departments, policy-makers, and public health strategies? And what methodologies might be most effective for understanding how they are experienced in everyday life? 

Organised around the themes of Communities, Technologies, and (Disrupting) Space, our programme included presentations on: 

What (else) can bikes do? Findings from a North-East participatory project,  

David Martin, Dave Buchan, Cassie Phoenix & Emily Tupper  

Moving Bodies Lab and Department of Sport & Exercise Sciences, Durham University. 

The Behaviour Change Wheel (2014) to build culture of cycling: Service design for modal shift.  

Mariam Draaijer, Joyriders   

The Erosion of Care? Mountain biking on a damaged planet  

Jim Cherrington, Sheffield Hallam University  

Changing the Game: Athlete agency and wheeled disability sport technologies  

Samuel Goldstone-Brady, Glasgow University & National Paralympic Heritage Trust  

Getting people with disabilities cycling  

Sara Bateman, Gateway Wheelers  

Perambulator: a walking exploration of parenting mobilities  

Claire Qualman, University of East London  

Artistic Allyship in the Strategic Entitlement of Non-Traditional Skateboarders  

Harry Meadley, Leeds Beckett University  

In keeping with our theme for the day, many attendees took up the opportunity to trial an e-bike, and head out for a lunchtime ride along the banks of the River Wear - something, we agreed, should become a feature of all future workshops!