Speed as an expression and texture of space: theory at play in a movement activity

In recent years, following new materialist, posthumanist and non-representational turns, human geography has increasingly understood the worlds it studies as vital, immediate and emergent. As part of this vision, studies have empirically animated and theoretically articulated various expressions/textures in the movement of space, including its rhythms, shapes, timings, repetitions, sensuousness, and infections. Speed is one such expression/texture that has received some empirical attention but, in comparison to most others, has not been so thoroughly theorized. In response, this paper conducts a reconnaissance into speed, its intentions being to convey some foundational theoretical understandings of speed and, through empirical research, show these at play in social contexts. Specifically, naturalistic participant observations of forms of the movement activity of cycling are used to animate how; (i) speed can be represented and affective as a scalar quantity; (ii) all objects possess speeds and affect other speeds; (iii) speeds and objects are known through relative positions and speeds; (iv) speeds create rates of happening; (v) speeds occur in all expressions/textures of space; (vi) the accelerating world is engaged at relational speeds. From this reconnaissance, to assist future research on speed, the paper closes with some suggested avenues for further inquiry.