“Today, it has become inevitable to speak of an energy crisis that threatens us.” This sermon, which seems contemporary as the question of energy issues animates the year 2022, nevertheless opens the Energy text and Equity (Seuil), published by Ivan Illich, in 1973. That year was marked by a series of political vagaries causing an increase in oil prices, which sees in particular the United States and the Netherlands undergo an embargo of the organization of oil exporting countries. With his work, the philosopher offers an unprecedented reflection, where bicycle is presented as a response to the social and ecological impasse of energy overconsumption.
Energy and equity questions the technical and production system, emphasizing the monopoly that motorized transport is in the process of setting up within the travel system. The traffic industry establishes a monopoly that the author describes as “radical” because, according to him, by increasing the distance and speed of travel, it leads to “a need that it is alone to be able to satisfy”.
Fathers of emerging political ecology, of which Ivan Illich is one of the representatives, tackle new questions about modern mobility, provoking, among other things, a reversal of the image of the bicycle. During the 1970s, the bicycle began a new symbolic revolution after having been the object of the bourgeois classes in the 19th e century, then the vehicle of the popular classes from the interwar period Thanks to its standardization and lowering of its purchase cost. While its use fades in most Western cities, the bicycle becomes synonymous with environmental protection and energy economy compared to the motorized modes which we become aware of the nuisances.
Anecdotal events
The appearance of ecological issues mixed with a context marked by a geopolitical crisis around the energy produces new expectations. In the Netherlands, the question of energy autonomy bursts at a time when the country is marked both by an awareness of infantile mortality on the roads and by the destruction of its historic city centers caused by creation urban highways. Bike is then a solution to a triple objective of energy independence, reduction in road mortality and preservation of urban heritage. The encounter of these different issues makes it possible to restore the coat of arms of the little queen, whose practice had dropped since the post-war reconstruction.
You have 56.5% of this article to read. The continuation is reserved for subscribers.