Sport for Development and Peace (SDP) continues to grow, both in research and practice. Recently, researchers have considered the merits of unstructured sport as a way of realizing sport's benefits while circumnavigating its perceived problematic elements. This article reports findings from research on 'Bicycles for Development' (BFD) - a movement that trades on bicycle access as a way of achieving development objectives. We draw from interviews and fieldwork with BFD stakeholders, with the aim of examining BFD in relation to the SDP field - and de-sportization especially. Three research findings are relevant along these lines: (1) bicycles as beneficial due to their inherent multi-functionality; (2) the merits of unstructured physical activity; and (3) factors that impact negatively on bicycle access and thus might hinder BFD's transformational potential. We conclude with reflections on BFD's potential in subverting both common notions of sport in SDP and the neoliberal model of SDP provision.

Safe space—a physical and psychosocial space cultivated through social relations—can be vital for youth programs and community development. This paper analyzes youth participants’ experiences in a Canadian bicycle program. The authors suggest that the program can be seen as a form of “Sport for Development,” and specifically what the authors term “Bicycles for Development”—as the bicycle is considered as a possible catalyst for development. Using interviews and photos, the role of “safe space” in the growing body of Bicycles for Development literature is highlighted, and the authors make a connection between Sport for Development scholarship and literature related to youth cultural activities and spaces. The findings reveal the benefits associated with program engagement and challenges despite program-related benefits.

This article explores 'bicycles for development' (BFD) - a 'movement' that positions the bicycle as a tool to promote key development goals, especially those related to the achievement of gender equality. Despite the increasing growth and prominence of BFD, there remains limited empirical research that investigates the intersections among gender, development, mobility and technologies such as the bicycle. Using visual participatory action research - informed by postcolonial feminist theory and new materialisms - this study explored how bicycles shaped the lives of women and girls in both structured BFD programmes (Uganda) and recreational cycling environments (Nicaragua). Three interrelated themes are discussed: (1) within communities there are conflicting views of the women and girls who participate in BFD and broader cycling related activities; (2) women in this study, through their involvement in BFD programmes or their engagement in cycling, challenge gender norms and resist traditional gender stereotypes related to cycling; and (3) access to a bicycle is associated with a focus on domestic and income-generating work - (re-)producing the burden on women to be primary caregivers. We conclude by reflecting on the duality of the bicycle as a promising and intricate technology used to contribute to gender and development objectives.

In the last 15 years, there has been a flurry of sport-for-development and peace (SDP) organizations, corporate-funded interventions and scholarship. Despite burgeoning SDP research, there have been few studies that have investigated the bicycles-for-development (BFD) "movement", whereby bicycles are perceived as key to achieving international development goals (e.g., gender equality). In this article, an institutional logics lens is used for an analysis of BFD hybrid organizations, particularly social enterprises. Interviews with BFD organizational executives were conducted, and data analysis revealed three overarching themes centered around: (1) BFD social enterprise financial strategies to strive for market and social program sustainability; (2) environmental factors that influence BFD social enterprises; and (3) social-market tensions of BFD hybrid organizations. Expanding understandings of how hybrid organizations in SDP navigate dual bottom-lines, findings and discussion highlight how BFD social enterprises are challenged by the environment in which they operate and as such face questions of their ability to offer clearly articulated social missions that move away from traditional market-based practices. The paper concludes 8with suggestions for further research on BFD and future empirical investigations of social enterprises in sport.8