From Private Troubles to Public Issues: E-bike Mobility and Shared Space in Shenzhen

Yuming Zhang, Zehang Yu and Yixin Huang
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Yuming Zhang: Peking University

No kzwau_v3, SocArXiv from Center for Open Science

Abstract: When does e-bike mobility become a public issue concerning shared urban space? Drawing on the new mobilities paradigm and socio-technical regime theory, we develop the concept of "spatial publicness of mobility practices" through a case-based approach to complexity. We analyse 405 RedNote threads centred on Shenzhen, each comprising an original post, its static images and comments, using two-step qualitative comparative analysis. Socio-technical grounding in the original post, through technical mediation, spatial anchoring, public issue framing or practitioner positioning, is necessary for spatial publicness. Four sufficient configurations show how this grounding combines with situated articulation: a street setting shown without comment, a station entrance framed as a matter of public order, the work of keeping an owned vehicle usable, and commenters' standpoints on rules and enforcement. Much of what becomes public concerns vehicles at rest. The pavement becomes a borrowed mooring for e-bikes through repeated occupation, and its use becomes speakable mainly when something breaks. Where vehicles are privately owned, riders carry the work of joining rules made separately for sale, registration and road use, while the costs of enforcement fall unevenly across the city's labour and housing geography. Social media takes part in this system, making the occupation look ordinary and pooling the practical knowledge needed to settle notices and recover towed vehicles. The study offers a configurational and multimodal reading of how the use of shared space and its public interpretation become interconnected.

Date: 2026-10-20
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:osf:socarx:kzwau_v3

DOI: 10.31235/osf.io/kzwau_v3

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