4 Bicycle design history and systems of mobility Peter Cox Introduction The bicycle is a strange object. It recurs with increasing frequency not only in today’s considerations of mobility and sustainability, but as an illustrative exam- ple in social theory of the relations between objects, environments and subject identities. In the abstract consideration of the theoretical bicycle, however, the specifc object, especially its multiplicity and diversity, can become obscured. Hadland and Lessing’s (2014) authoritative work on bicycle design history suc- ceeds by explicitly concentrating on the technological, not social, dimensions of the object, yet even they are forced to occasionally stray into wider consideration of the environmental, social, economic and political forces that have interacted to shape this history. This chapter focuses on the ways in which bicycle design con- nects with a range of factors; how external forces may shape reinterpretations of bicycle design, and how bicycle design, in turn, may be used to try to shape the external world. Two historical cases are explored to show how bicycles, as design objects, are entangled with practices and identities: Germany in the 1920s and 1930s and England in the 1960s and 1970s. In the frst case, design is used to reproduce and reinforce a dominant political ideology through reinterpretation rather than innovation. Here the bicycle allows new connections to be made between state and citizen. In the second case, design innovation is employed to challenge domi- nant ideologies of mobility: bicycles are used to connect citizens to new mobility practices. Both cases illustrate the relations between design and politics and both have implications for inclusion and access aspects of social justice. Both studies make use of close reading of manufacturers’ literature but place it more strongly in a political/cultural context to understand the relationship between the design objects and wider society. The following section considers broader theoretical perspectives within which these case studies are situated. Theorising bicycles as design objects Thinking about the bicycle as a design object immediately confronts us with con- tradictions. The frst is that most bicycle production, historically speaking, is not actually the result of deliberate design processes. A bicycle is an assemblage of a 05_SPINNEY_CH-04.indd 48 10/27/2016 5:03:44 PM T&F Proofs, Not for Distribution