The Civil Society Impact on City-making : The Ethnographies of Cycling in Zagreb

Abstract

Broj biciklista na zagrebačkim ulicama u posljednja je dva desetljeća u vidnom porastu. Masovna prisutnost bicikala mijenja svakodnevnu dinamiku i fizički izgled javnog prostora. S pojavom različitih mogućnosti civilnog djelovanja u gradu Zagrebu, mnogi građani odlučuju se na organizirano ili individualno zagovaranje urbanog biciklizma kao punopravnog aktera gradskog prometa koji zavrjeđuje prikladnu biciklističku infrastrukturu, te koji donosi društvene i ekološke benefite svim građanima. Dio tog procesa odgovara razvoju diskursa o održivom razvoju u Europi, koji biciklizam stavlja u kontekst društvene i ekološke odgovornosti. Kroz sudjelovanje s promatranjem, polustrukturirane intervjue i autoetnografiju, ovaj rad istražuje na koje načine urbani biciklizam putem djelovanja civilnog društva zadobiva mjesto u fizičkom i društvenom prostoru grada Zagreba.The number of cycling commuters on the streets of Zagreb is growing rapidly in the last two decades. Their growing presence is changing the everyday dynamics, as well as the physical features of city's public space. With new possibilities of civil activism in Zagreb, many citizens decide to take organized or individual action towards establishing urban cycling as an important part of city's traffic that requires functional cycling infrastructure, and that generates multiple environmental and social benefits for the society. Part of that process developed regarding the European sustainable development discourse, that considers cycling as a socially and environmentally responsible act. Through participant observation, semi-structured interviews and autoethnography, this paper investigates the process of legitimizing urban cycling in social and physical space of Zagreb by civil society activism