On the edge: A tale of skaters and urban governance

An existential phenomenological examination of parkour and freerunning

“…In fact, for many urban resistant skaters, skate parks "kill the heart of skateboarding" (Ferrell, 2001, p.75), essentially, because it reinforces the very dynamics of social control that restrict them and further proscribes where they can and cannot skate. Stratford's (2002) research on urban governance and the "problem" of skating addresses the tension and "unavoidable clashes between 'unproductive' skaters and 'productive' commercial interests and citizen-consumers" (p. 195). Increasingly, urban managers have the difficult and complex demands of accommodating skaters (as moral citizens) while controlling them in (legal) public spaces (Stratford, 2002).…”

“…Stratford's (2002) research on urban governance and the "problem" of skating addresses the tension and "unavoidable clashes between 'unproductive' skaters and 'productive' commercial interests and citizen-consumers" (p. 195). Increasingly, urban managers have the difficult and complex demands of accommodating skaters (as moral citizens) while controlling them in (legal) public spaces (Stratford, 2002). One skater articulates the putative attitude of many, demonstrating why this task is so difficult:…”

Waxing ledges: built environments, alternative sustainability, and the Chicago skateboarding scene

“…This article explores the social meanings of skateboarding in public spaces (Flusty 2000, Ferrell 2001, Woolley and Johns 2001, Stratford 2002, Nolan 2003, Stevens and Dovey 2004, Tonkiss 2005, Franck and Stevens 2007, Woolley et al 2011) and the Local Environment regulation of skateboarding through the emergence of skate parks (Jones and Graves 2000, Németh 2006, Howell 2008, Chui 2009, Taylor and Khan 2011 by focusing on the politics of children's play and sustainability-themed urban development in Chicago. Through ethnographic fieldwork consisting of participation in the Chicago skateboarding scene during 2009 -2010, this article chronicles how Chicago skaters both challenge normative regulation through an alternative ethic of care (Clement 1996) for built environments and conform to the dominant agenda of urban growth through sustainable development (Foster 2002).…”

Trans-Species Urban Politics

“…This is the context of a controversy regarding an unofficial urban/suburban -dog beach‖, a place that people from different interest groups struggle to gain access to and to define using all possible means. Thus, the present article recounts some recognizable features of contested everyday socio-spatial relations, taken from, among other sources, studies of skateboarding (Stratford, 2002;Chiu, 2009), graffiti writing (Mubi-Brighenti, 2010), young street dwellers (Valentine, 2004) and punks (Hebdige, 1979). The case study will be analyzed as an example of a ‗politics of place' (Franzén, 2002), in which several actors are trying to define of a certain location.…”