Regulating Critical Mass: Performativity and City Streets

Abstract

On the last Friday of every month, tens of thousands of cyclists across 300 cities ride their bicycles for about an hour. In these events, cyclists disregard laws and regulations by bursting through red lights, traversing highway overpasses, and occupying multiple lanes of the road. These cyclists form part of Critical Mass. For the time in which Critical Mass takes place, participants are part of a nomos, or “normative universe”, which determines laws for their particular community. Critical Mass’ conception as a nomos, together with its interaction or performance among the legal orders set out in municipal, provincial, and federal law, are analyzed in this paper. paper presents an understanding of how performativity contributes to the interdisciplinary legal geography project by challenging the language of jurisdiction imposed by law.

Keywords: municipal law, legal geography, performativity, critical mass