Neoliberal mobility and its discontents: Working tricycles in China's cities

What kind of civilization are we trying to build? Prior to the neoliberal age Freud considered civilization to be a collective social project with discontent arising when individuals are constrained by society from pursuing their own self-interested goals. Today, with globalization and competitive laissez-faire dominant, Stiglitz sees this relationship being reversed with individual self-interest as the norm, and discontentment arising when broader societal objectives are pursued. This theme is taken up in the context of working tricycles in China's cities which serve as the platform for millions of micro-enterprises, but are being squeezed out by automobility. In the neoliberal age there has been a substantial increase in mobility, with some people becoming hypermobile, particularly with excessive automobile use. Working tricycles were popular in the West in the late nineteenth century, but in the twentieth century they virtually disappeared. The same trend is evident with China's carrier tricycles, but a case is made that history should not be allowed to repeat itself because they continue to fill a valuable social need.

► Examines the importance of working tricycles to transportation in Chinese cities. ► Sees hypermobility squeezing out this sustainable form of green transportation. ► Envisions cycling as part of the future as well as the past in China's cities. ► Establishes the crucial importance to numerous micro-enterprises in China's cities. ► Describes a form of transportation almost totally ignored in the City literature.