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COVID‐19, commuter territories and the e‐bike boom
Author(s) -
Waitt Gordon,
Buchanan Ian,
Lea Tess,
Fuller Glen
Publication year - 2023
Publication title -
area
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.958
H-Index - 82
eISSN - 1475-4762
pISSN - 0004-0894
DOI - 10.1111/area.12814
Subject(s) - boom , covid-19 , assemblage (archaeology) , pandemic , sociology , space (punctuation) , public space , geography , archaeology , engineering , computer science , architectural engineering , medicine , disease , pathology , virology , environmental engineering , outbreak , infectious disease (medical specialty) , biology , operating system
The appearance and integration of e‐bikes in public space is a source of much debate worldwide. This paper offers insights to these debates by reflecting on how Deleuze and Guattari's concept of assemblage as territory helps us to understand the uptake of e‐bike commuter cycling during the Covid‐19 pandemic through empirical material from a study conducted in Sydney, Australia. Here we conceptualise commuter journeys in terms of processes of deterritorialisation and reterritorialisation; experienced through the affective territories generated by e‐bikes. The disclosure of commuter cycling sensations generated by the pandemic disruptions to commuter routines provided an important lens through which to understand the uptake of e‐bikes. The paper concludes by showing the utility of the concept of territory as a means of theorising changes to everyday mobility practices.