Citation

Glenney B, Mull S. J. Sport Soc. Iss. 2018; 42(6): 437-453.

Affiliation

Independent Scholar.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/0193723518800525

PMID

30510332

PMCID

PMC6269152

Abstract

Skateboarding poses a unique case study for considering the place of sport in human activity. The bulk of skateboarding scholarship argues that skateboarding is largely a subversion of rule governance, a view difficult to square with common and popular rule-governed skateboarding competitions, now including the Olympics. We attempt to resolve this tension by arguing for a kind of pluralism: skateboarding's engagement in rule-governed competition is distinctly subversive, yielding the claim that skateboarding is both sport and subversion. This pluralism is examined in an "ecological" framework of emergent activities defined by push-pull interactive relationships between skateboarders and their environment that change the meaning of their spaces-whether domestic, urban, or competitive-to spaces that are both wild and spontaneous. We conclude with reflections on how skateboarding provides understanding of sport in the space of ecological meaning.

Language: en

Keywords

ecology; skateboarding; space; sport; subversion