Governing bodies or managing freedom? Subcultural struggles, national sport systems and the glocalised institutionalisation of parkour

Abstract

Whilst being the world's fastest growing informal sport, parkour is also undergoing a gradual institutionalisation which is shaped differently by each national context's specific sport system. We investigate this glocalised process by examining the subcultural tensions and power struggles it generates within the Italian parkour community. Whilst in other countries parkour practitioners (the so-called traceurs/traceuses) have managed to gain public recognition by forming a specific and independent national governing body, in Italy they are gradually affiliating with different Sport Promotion Bodies (Enti di Promozione Sportiva), the distinctive umbrella organisations which compete for the provision of sport-for-all within the country. Through a qualitative mixed-method approach based on focus groups, individual interviews and the analysis of ethnographic and documentary material, we explore the institutionalisation of Italian parkour by focusing on the controversies surrounding the introduction of teaching standards and qualifications, which is becoming a battlefield between competing authenticity claims based on different visions and interpretations of parkour.Our analysis shows how sport policymakers become influential agents in this authentication process by (often unwittingly) favouring certain forms and meanings of the practice and thereby contributing to legitimising certain practitioners over others, distributing subcultural reputations and shaping hierarchies in the field. Moreover, by highlighting how the specific characteristics of the Italian sport system contribute to increasing tensions amongst traceurs but also stimulate discussion and pluralism, this study calls for future comparative analysis of the role of policymakers in the local recontextualisation of highly globalised practices.

Managing informal sport participation: tensions and opportunities

“…The growth of informal sporting activities and the potential for informal sport to reach groups that would not traditionally engage in mainstream sport also make it highly appealing to health and sport practitioners seeking to increase sport participation and achieve broader health and social agendas (King and Church 2015, Wheaton and Doidge 2015, Wheaton and O'Loughlin 2017. However, existing studies indicate that sporting stakeholders currently use practices more commonly associated with traditional sport in their efforts to manage informal sport (such as developing coach education and accreditation systems; see O'Loughlin 2012, Sterchele and Ferrero-Camoletto 2017), and seek to regularise informal opportunities in a similar way to mainstream opportunities. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this has created backlash from some informal participants.…”

“…The ASC's own participation data further indicate 'Sport clubs are not the main choice for participation in sport or physical activity in Australia for adults aged 18 years and over' (ASC, 2016b, p.11). Despite these shifts in participation trends, sports policy makers have yet to consider seriously how they might support and extend informal participation (Sterchele and Ferrero-Camoletto 2017).…”

Keeping it natural? challenging indoorization in Italian rock climbing

“…i For an analysis of the authentication process , in Italy, of a recently emerged lifestyle sport, parkour, see Sterchele and Ferrero Camoletto (2017).…”

Women’s Artistic Gymnastics

“…This work has examined the development of football game identity and the emergence of transnational sport corporations (Giulianotti & Robertson, 2004); fanship (Giulianotti & Robertson, 2006) migration of football players (Giulianotti & Robertson, 2007); and the development of Asian sport (Giulianotti & Robertson, 2006. With regard to gymnastics, researchers have recently adopted the glocalisation perspective to examine the sportization of parkour 2 in New Zealand and Italy (Puddle, Wheaton, & Thorpe, 2018;Sterchele & Ferrero Camoletto, 2017), and Chinese sport and gymnastics governing bodies' reactions to gymnastics developments since the 1950s (Zheng, Tan, & Bairner, 2017). This latter research demonstrates how Chinese gymnastics predominantly developed in relation to USSR gymnastics.…”