Browsing by Subject "Bicycles"
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Item A primer on the aesthetics, fabrication, and culture of lowrider bicyles in West Texas: Participant observation throught elens of a white, middle-class male, artist/educator(2009-12) McQuilkin, Kyle S.; Check, Ed; Akins-Tillett, Future; Gelber, Bill; Jaddo, Lahib; Erler, CarolynIn spite of a 40-year history and their expanding popularity, lowrider bicycles have largely remained invisible to academe, perhaps due in part to their marginalization as a Chicano/a paradigm, with a consequential subordination of the aesthetic. Although there is a wealth of literature related to greater lowrider car culture, chiefly in the works of Brenda Jo Bright, Ben Chappell, Denise Sandoval, Paige R. Penland, and Michael Cutler Stone, the absence of material specific to lowrider bikes necessitated close inspection as participant observer. Primarily limiting my sample to a 150-mile radius around Lubbock, Texas, I interviewed enthusiasts and examined their lowbikes to learn fabrication methods and the canon under which they function, as well as nuances of associated lowrider culture. As keys to my immersion, I fabricated my own bicycle, The Fourth Rider of the Apocalypse, consecutively joined Tru Riderz and Los Bajitos lowrider car clubs, and competed to the national level. Concurrently, I organized seven lowbike exhibitions at the galleries of Texas Tech University and the Buddy Holly Center, in Lubbock. These public shows inspired ancillary programs in the School of Art at Texas Tech, including outreach at two Lubbock middle schools. Filtered through my positional lens, as a White, middle-class male, artist/educator, this dissertation records my efforts to understand the reasons that lowbikes have previously been dismissed by academe, and the ethno-cultural impetus behind the aesthetic. Starting with discussions about the history, ontology, and fabrication of lowrider bicycles, I analyze my findings through the works of contemporary Chicano/a authors, including Shifra Goldman, Tomas Ybarra-Frausto,Amalia Mesa-Bains, and Marcos Sanchez-Tranquilino, in reference to Chicanismo, pachuquismo, rasquachismo, and issues related to gender and gallery exhibition. In Lubbock, the fabrication and exhibition of lowrider bikes function as a means toward self-presentation, increased social mobility, and family unity. In contrast to academic assertions consistently defining lowrider cars and bikes as a Chicano/a aesthetic, lowriders themselves typically self-define on the basis of club involvement and vehicle ownership, regardless of race or political affiliation. Ultimately, the aesthetic is driven most by the canon imposed by car show rules, governed by Lowrider Magazine.Item Biketivists, hipsters, and spandex queens : bicycle politics and cultural critique in Austin(2011-05) Ronald, Kirsten Marie; Davis, Janet M.; Engelhardt, ElizabethThis paper uses an interdisciplinary, multiperspectival approach to analyze biketivism and various anticapitalist biketivist projects in Austin, Texas, in the hopes that a “glocalized” exploration of past and current biketivist struggles can help locate potential sites for political agency in ways that more placeless rhetorical studies cannot. Because the form and content of present-day bike politics in Austin are heavily dependent on biketivism’s historically tense articulations with capitalism, a historical analysis of biketivism as an outgrowth of Progressive Era and Appropriate Technology narratives reveals its crystallization around issues of technological, spatial, and social politics. Three case studies then apply this framework to different sites within the Austin bike community: the sales rhetoric of pro-custom bike shops, the debates over installing a Bike Boulevard in downtown Austin, and the missions and forms of several bike-related cultural organizations. Together, these perspectives on Austin’s bike community indicate that the incorporation (and sometimes outright co-optation) of biketivists’ technological and spatial demands and practices into mainstream culture may fragment the movement into physical and social agendas, but this fragmentation does not necessarily silence biketivism’s more radical social politics. At least in Austin, co-optation of biketivism may paradoxically be helping biketivists meet their goal of bringing (pedal) power to the people.Item The recyclists : bikes, borders and basura(2009-12) Melanson, Michael P., 1978-; Dahlby, Tracy; Minutaglio, Bill; Cash, WandaIn January, 2009, I joined Bikes Across Borders, a local grassroots organization, on their yearly bike caravan to Mexico. The group works to promote bicycles, both here and in Mexico, as an environmentally and financially sound alternative to motorized transportation. Each winter, members ride bicycles they build out of salvaged parts to border cities in Mexico. They give these bicycles to maquiladora workers who would otherwise spend a large portion of their income on transportation. These workers make a fraction of what they would in the U.S. and live in shacks amid the pollution from the factories they work in. This is the story of one group’s attempt at making a difference in the lives of these workers.Item Regional–local coordination of non-motorized transportation : an exploration of two regions(2011-05) Dohm, Diane Annette; Paterson, Robert G.; Zhang, MingThis research report explores two regions, Denver and Minneapolis, by describing and analyzing their regional and local coordination efforts with respect to non-motorized transportation. The report is comprised of a literature review on the MPO institutional framework and governance, description and analysis of each region including levels of relationships between the MPO, State DOT, local governments and advocacy groups, as well as a comparison of both regions leading to the findings, lessons learned, and research implications. Specifically, this research seeks to understand how different levels of government work together, how the regional relationships assist in creating and implementing plans, how relationships with advocacy groups affect planning, and how climate change goals are integrated into non-motorized transportation planning.