*Proceeding Paper* **The Spatial Calibration of Environmental Citizenship: Identity Political Analysis of the Cycling Culture in a Small Provincial City †**

**Simo Häyrynen**

Department of Geographical and Historical Studies, Joensuu Campus, University of Eastern Finland, FI-80101 Joensuu, Finland; simo.hayrynen@uef.fi

† Presented at the 2nd International Conference of International Researchers of the Education for Environmental Citizenship 2022, 10–11 March 2022. Available online: https://enec-cost.eu/ireec22/.

**Abstract:** This paper discusses the adoption of the urban cycling culture in a northern provincial town of Joensuu by analysing interviews of cyclists and the opinion letters from the local newspaper in the centre/periphery frameworks. It highlights the spatial change of environmental agenda and, thus, the local conditions of environmental citizenship from the identity political perspective.

**Keywords:** cycling culture; green urbanism; environmental citizenship; spatial sustainability transition; cultural ecosystem of traffic

### **1. Introduction**

Social and geographical studies on cycling often emphasize infrastructure efficiency and 'urban access', revealing important information about social aspects of cycling [1–4]. The cultural transition that occurs with the spread of urban cycling, not only as a practical mode of transportation, but also as an identity structure and social behavior, have been less researched. This paper theoretically discusses the scalar dynamics of environmental citizenship by asking how the urban cycling culture is applied and adopted in a remote provincial town. To answer this, it focuses on the local conditions of the formation of cycling identity, and the related role of active cyclists as agents of change.

The bicycle is one of the main symbols of green urbanism and low carbon ideology. Unlike material devices, the symbolic nature varies contextually [5]. Hence, the identity political approach to spatially changing cycling culture requires separation between 'sustainability' as a technical concept and a more culturally constructed symbol [6]. It enables analytical distinction between the rational and emotional aspects of environmental concerns, despite being practically interdependent.

The theoretical framework of the study is based on the culturally tense center/periphery relationship that links the subject with a larger discussion on the spatiality of green transition [7–9]. Green urbanism is based on value-based belief that the urban compact city appears as the location of development and as the solution to many problems—environmental, social, and economic [10]. Conceptually, its counterpart is 'coal capitalism' or 'petroculture' [11], which provide a platform for arguments against the too rapid spread of cycling culture. Another viewpoint, more common in peripheral areas, claims that green urbanism is not just an import of an ecologically rational way of life, but an import of a foreign cultural influence that does not work in the context of a small-town culture, and may end up hindering the real green transition [12].
