Leverhulme Fellowship success for Professor Mat Humphrey

Congratulations to Professor Mat Humphrey who has been awarded a Leverhulme Research Fellowship for the academic year 2019/20. The award is for a project on Riders’ Rights: Freedom, Identity, and Authenticity in Grassroots Activism, examining the ideologies and the rise of ‘Riders’ Rights Organisations’ (RROs) dedicated to the defence of the rights and freedoms of motorcyclists.

RROs provide a window into two contemporary bases of political mobilisation that are poorly understood: self-chosen identity and ‘self-authenticating’ consumption activity. RROs show a clear tendency for the politicisation of a self-chosen, consumption-based identity. Nobody is born to be a biker, yet that identity is capable of mobilising people to give up time, money, and personal freedom in the service of a ‘greater’ cause.