Citation

O'Connor P. Int. Rev. Sociol. Sport 2018; 53(8): 924-943.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, International Sociology of Sport Association, Publisher SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/1012690217691780

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Responding to the call of Wheaton to discuss the position of older participants in lifestyle sports, this research presents an analysis of the experiences of middle-aged skateboarders. Through qualitative interviews, ethnographic observation, and discourse analysis of skateboard media, skateboarding is revealed to be an integral part of the biographies and identities of middle-aged skateboarders. These accounts challenge the imaging of skateboarding as a youth culture and indicate that age and time have an important currency to skateboarders. The value of age is not confined to middle-aged skateboarders but is also observable in skateboard media which corresponds with the values held more broadly in skateboard culture. The concept of temporal capital is proposed as a way to make sense of the experiences of middle-aged skateboarders, highlighting how time is at once a path to subcultural authenticity, but also a resource to be managed and scheduled for their continued engagement in skateboarding.

Language: en