**2. Materials and Method**

The conceptual topography will be applied to an empirical study on the city of Joensuu, a smallish Finnish provincial center in which cycling culture has recently reformed owing

**Citation:** Häyrynen, S. The Spatial Calibration of Environmental Citizenship: Identity Political Analysis of the Cycling Culture in a Small Provincial City. *Environ. Sci. Proc.* **2022**, *14*, 6. https://doi.org/ 10.3390/environsciproc2022014006

Academic Editors: Andreas Ch. Hadjichambis, Pedro Reis, Marie-Christine Knippels, Audrone Telesiene, ˙ Daphne Goldman, Demetra Paraskeva-Hadjichambi, Jan Cincera and Kateˇrina Janˇcaˇríková

Published: 2 March 2022

**Publisher's Note:** MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

to a relatively young and educated population (universities). At the same time, Joensuu is a place where the urban structure, natural conditions, and political power ratios are different from those of a big city.

The research material is based on fifteen semi-stuctured interviews of cyclists and cycling experts, and SMS-messages about cycling in the feedback section of the local newspaper (Karjalainen) within five months of 2019. The study uses both conceptual and discoursive content analysis in the centre/periphery frameworks. The main themes of the analysis are (1) the rationalization and irrationalization of green lifestyle, (2) the socio-cultural dependencies of traffic, and (3) the peripheral components of the arguments.

### **3. Discussion**

The site-specific analysis builds on the contextually changing competition of hegemony in an environmental agenda between the traditional/conventional thinking and a new formative thinking. Besides the common conflict between cyclists and(private) car drivers within a small town, the analysis shows that cyclists do not form a homogeneous group but a great variety when it comes to the motivation to use the device. A rough division takes place between the committed advocates of a green lifestyle and so-called regular cyclists. Yet, both act as agents of change in their own life-circles and in their own terms. As for all traffic users, different views on the function of cycling seems to be linked to different collective perceptions of human progress. Hence, the forms of daily mobility produce alternative epistemic spaces of cycling such as those where cycling is seen as an indication of socio-economic backwardness (cannot afford a car) or traditional practicality (bicycle only as a means of mobility). In their argumentations, all parties derive from the peripheral location of their home area and their own alleged underdog position in respect of the other traffic users.

**Funding:** This research was funded by the Academy of Finland, grant number 286733.

**Institutional Review Board Statement:** The project will follow the principles of good scientific practice and ethical guidelines of the Academy of Finland and the ethical principles of qualitative research. This means respect and confidentiality, safeguarding the anonymity of persons involved in interviews and publications, and openness to scrutiny and possible validation by fellow scientists. The research design, as presented in this plan, does not involve the collection of individual personal data that would enable individuals to be recognised or identified. The interviewees are asked for their permission to use the interviews for research purposes and to digitally record the interviews. The interview material is kept in the possession of the research project and is not passed on except as separately agreed with the interviewees.

**Informed Consent Statement:** Informed consent was obtained from all subjects involved in the study.

**Data Availability Statement:** The interview material is in the possession of the researcher. The newspaper material can be found in the electronic archive of the local newspaper. https://digilehti. karjalainen.fi/titles/karjalainen/3544/archive (accessed on 1 May 2019).

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.

