Sounds great! Well done John.
Specifically:
1) I like the idea of an informal fringe meeting, which presumably would
provide us all with at least one structured opportunity to meet up during
the conference, and also potentially and hopefully enable the expansion of
our network. Having never been to a Velo-City I don't know how fringe
meetings work, but I assume we can drink wine and beer, and have a bit of a
do?!
2) I also think a debate would be good.
I like John and Paul's ideas, and think they fit what we're about. I'd
happily propose or second, for example, something like "cycling is cultural
all the way down" (though that seems remarkably uncontentious, doesn't
it?!).
Another idea for a staged debate, which might resonate with our
interests/expertise, could be a methodological one. We could start, for
example, from a statement such as "Current research into cycling tends to be
dominated by quantitative methodologies, and needs better to appreciate the
understandings derived from qualitative approaches", or - more bluntly -
"research into cycling needs to jettison quantitative in favour of
qualitative methodologies".
More overtly politically, but probably more idiosyncratically, I'd also be
interested in something along the lines of "You can't promote cycling
without criminalising the car" or "Cyclists need more consciously to forge a
global social movement".
All the best
Dave
|