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'We close towns for a living': spatial transformation and the Tour de France

Palmer, C.

Authors

C. Palmer



Abstract

This paper explores the ways in which the passage of the Tour de France bicycle race through France produces a distinctive cultural cartography or social map of France. Drawing on Lefebvre's (1991) conceptual triad of spatial practice, representations of space and representational spaces, the paper argues that the Tour de France both represents and is a space that is annually reordered and structured by very particular cultural practices. Through an analysis of the process (and politics) of route selection, the incorporation of iconic landscape and the transformation of civic space as the race moves across the country, the paper foregrounds the socially constructed nature of map making and the role of human intervention in producing and reproducing key cultural cartographies of France through the Tour de France.

Citation

Palmer, C. (2010). 'We close towns for a living': spatial transformation and the Tour de France. Social and Cultural Geography, 11(8), 865-881. https://doi.org/10.1080/14649365.2010.523841

Journal Article Type Article
Publication Date Dec 1, 2010
Deposit Date Oct 13, 2010
Journal Social and Cultural Geography
Print ISSN 1464-9365
Electronic ISSN 1470-1197
Publisher Taylor and Francis Group
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 11
Issue 8
Pages 865-881
DOI https://doi.org/10.1080/14649365.2010.523841
Keywords Tour de France, Cartographies, Spatial transformation, Lefebvre, National identity.

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