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Space, Place, and Environment pp 311–329Cite as

Parkour, Activism, and Young People

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Part of the book series: Geographies of Children and Young People ((GCYP,volume 3))

Abstract

This chapter details how parkour can be used as a lens to renegotiate the debates about activism and young people. It argues that parkour is childlike, not because it is undertaken by children and young adults but because it demands a more youthful “state of mind” that inculcates a subversive politics of the urban. Such a view foregrounds emancipatory, “childlike” agency of the subculture of parkour, rather than the spectacular “youthful” corporeality that it has become synonymous with. This chapter argues that parkour offers a “way in” to urban activism, not through a direct engagement with political or anti-hegemonic activities or reactive protest against the forces of neoliberal capitalism but through a “softer politics” of rediscovering the urban environment around their own beliefs, expressions, and desires. By engaging in parkour, people are moving away from cultural provisioning of the modern global creative city that is too often prescribed and formulaic and instead participating in a process of urban citizenship that is allowing them to discover the urban and all the experiences it has to offer for themselves. It is this process that characterizes the “childlike” characteristics of parkour.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham Hill, TW20 0EX, Egam, UK

    Oli Mould

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  1. Oli Mould
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Correspondence to Oli Mould .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. College of Education, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand

    Karen Nairn

  2. School of GEES, University of Birmingham , Birmingham, United Kingdom

    Peter Kraftl

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© 2016 Crown Copyright

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Mould, O. (2016). Parkour, Activism, and Young People. In: Nairn, K., Kraftl, P. (eds) Space, Place, and Environment. Geographies of Children and Young People, vol 3. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-044-5_5

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