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Abstract

Estimates suggest that tens of millions of people skateboard for transport and pleasure—it is a mobility practice
both instrumental and playful. That play is important for creativity, connection, and positive affect is known.
Yet skating is often typified as mere vandalism, despite the fact that, intrinsic worth aside, its hybridity is instructive:
It invites consideration of the spatial politics of the street and the possibility of accommodating this and,
indeed, other forms of “alternative” movement. Arguably, the prospect of such generous geographies is fundamental
to ideas about the right to the city, an entitlement embracing responsibilities to one another. Nevertheless,
given the ongoing dominance of automobility and widespread anxieties about skating, the tendency has
been to try and contain it in parks and regulate its presence on streets, not least by creating design solutions to
render it difficult to engage in. A corollary of these strategies, in combination with skaters’ own resolve to claim
rights to the city, is that skaters move on to roadways. These armatures have not been designed generously to
accommodate forms of mobility apart from motor vehicles—and sometimes pedestrians and cyclists. Consequently,
skaters are among the millions who die on the roads annually. In relative terms, the number is minute;
nevertheless, each death invokes this question: How can we mobilize a spatial politics of street skating by thinking
about the geographies of generosity in ways that might avoid such events? Reflecting on that question is the
purpose of this article.

Item Type:	Article
Authors/Creators:	Stratford, E
Journal or Publication Title:	Annals of the Association of American Geographers
Publisher:	Blackwell Publishers
ISSN:	0004-5608
DOI / ID Number:	https://doi.org/10.1080/00045608.2015.1100062
Copyright Information:	Copyright 2016 Blackwell Publishers
Item Statistics:	View statistics for this item

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