Mobile therapeutic ‘home’ territories during the COVID-19 pandemic and moments of being well pedalling
Publication Name
Social and Cultural Geography
Abstract
This paper moves beyond biomedical accounts of cycling health benefits to consider the situated, emergent, embodied, and relational notion of being well. In doing so, we draw on Deleuze and Guattari’s account of affect to advance a conceptual framework of mobile therapeutic ‘home’ territories. We understand moments of being well as an emergent affective capacity generated by the coming together of socio-material relations in the process of territorialization, deterritorialization and reterritorialization. Our rhizoanalysis is based on semi-structured interviews and sketches of cycling reactivation research in inner-city Sydney, Australia, in 2020 during the first pandemic lockdown. We demonstrate that for those working at home with access to coasts and parks, riding a bike became an important enabler of becoming and being well in moments of competitiveness and playfulness. Such moments emerged from the intensified affective force of social-material relations that comprise pedalling ‘home’ territories as ‘lifestyle sport’ or as ‘active free-play’. In doing so, we contribute to debates in social and cultural geography on riding a bike.
Open Access Status
This publication is not available as open access