THE RIGHT TO PUBLIC SPACE -SPACES OF ALTERNATIVE YOUTH SPORTS

Anni RannikkoUniversity of Eastern FinlandDepartment of Social Sciences

Children, young people and families in changing urban spaces3rd of September 2014, Northampton, the UK

PRELIMINARY ANALYSIS ON

How public space defines alternative youth sport cultures, and what kinds of spaces alternative sports create?

What kind of power relations are visible in the spaces of alternative sports?

Alternative sports in this analysis: skateboarding, inline skating, freestyle scootering, parkour, contemporary circus, longboarding, capoeira, street dance, bouldering and roller derby

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Escalade_crochet_talon.jpg

Carlos Marko-TapioMaria Hopponen

BACKGROUNDAlternative sports

Free and creative in terms of style, space and time Question our understanding of spaces of sport Are created through inventing and taking over new

spaces of sports ‘creative street phase’

Space, power and resistance Space is power societal hierarchies became visible in

space (Lefebvre, Massey) Public space is monopolised by adults (Sibley) Uncontrolled and spontaneous 4th space: youth at/as risk

RESEARCH MATERIAL

Ethnographic interviews of young people practising alternative sports

Open-ended questions of an online survey targeting young people practising alternative sports (n = 935)

Ethnographic observation, fieldwork notes

SPACES OF ALTERNATIVE SPORTS

Spaces of creativity Spaces of mutual respect Spaces of restriction Spaces of justification

You shouldn’t practise parkour in places where something might get broken. Let’s not cause so called bad blood in people and fool around, because it will negatively affect the reputation of our sport. (A 27-year-old traceur.)

Photo: Maria Hopponen

CONCLUSIONS Changing urban space

Offers possibilities and inspires Restricts and sets limits Is an object of spatial (re-)construction of urban culture

Public space is monopolised by adults exclusion of and control over young people

Alternative sport practitioners question the standardized character of public space in subtle ways Public space is occupied unremarked and momentarily Negotiating actions are stressed; conflict and explicitly articulated

resistance disapproved

Societal hierarchies are challenged and redefined through space and its use hierarchies between youth and adulthood as well as different alternative sports are negotiated by being present in, by using and by talking about public space