Individual changes in the bicycle community workshops, A typology from a new agent of socialization

Social change is at the center of solutions to the problems of the environment. Yet social change is sometimes elusively described. Through empirical inquiries guided by socialization theories, the present article aims to identify different types of individual changes. These individual changes are observed and discussed in French bicycle community workshops. These places aim to replace cars with bicycles. Everyone is offered the opportunity to learn how to repair his own bicycle. Without a motor, the bicycle is moved by the force of its user and is easier to repair than a car. The goal of the bicycle community workshops is to allow individuals to gain more control over the tools they use daily. In these workshops, individuals start or continue to transform their lives and not only their travel habits. In the words of Berger and Luckmann, these places constitute laboratories of transformation. That is why I conducted 40 qualitative interviews and one-month as a participant observer in two bicycle community workshops. The result is a precise description both of social change on an individual scale and of a new agent of socialization. Bicycle community workshops may be seeds for a more sustainable future.