The Accidental Youth Club: Skateboarding in Newcastle-Gateshead

Abstract

Skateboarders re-invent and interrogate the physical structure of cityscapes as they use spaces, buildings and objects for skating. However, skaters are routinely regarded by the civic and business interests who dominate city centre planning and regeneration as, at best, a nuisance and at worst an unruly and dangerous blight. This paper reports findings from a research project involving skaters which begins to unpick this stereotype. A participatory methodology combining mapping, interviews and observation was used to identify spots used by skaters in Newcastle and Gateshead (North East England). The key spots were characterized using four criteria: trickability, accessibility, sociability and compatibility. Findings reveal that two further factors temporal and relational dimensions are crucial to the journeys skaters embark on. Sociability was the one constant factor defining favoured spots. The study revealed a sociable, entrepreneurial, creative skate scene. Far from being a problem the skaters add to the social capital of the cityscape. The findings suggest that rather than designing out skaters from the city the civic authorities should work with skaters to sustain their scene as a positive benefit to city regeneration. Skateboarding and the City

Beyond walking and cycling: scoping small-wheel modes

“…Young people predominate in the use of alternative and non-traditional modes of transport. As mentioned above, there are concerns over antisocial behaviour in public space (Jenson et al, 2012), but others have anxieties that these fears are preventing active play and active travel among children and young people (Vivoni, 2013;Woolley et al, 2011).…”

Tracing postrepresentational visions of the city: representing the unrepresentable Skateworlds of Tyneside

“…We felt it important to use a recognizable map of the city to locate the presence of skateboarders in the city because, following Wood and Fels (2008), doing so is an existence claim. Skaters are marginalized in Tyneside and excluded from its commercial heart, but are nonetheless part of the city and make entrepreneurial, social and cultural contributions to it in ways politicians repeated call for (see McCulloch et al, 2006;Weller, 2006;Jenson et al, 2012). It is important, therefore, their presence and contribution is recognised.…”

“…Monument in the centre of Newcastle's shopping district is busy at all times apart from after dark, and therefore is only skateable once it has few people around it. The steps outside the Law Courts are used by the public 9-5, but are appropriated (with permission) by skaters after 6pm (Jenson et al, 2012). The Wasteland is only usable in the dry, but Five Bridges is covered by overpasses and thus accessible in all but the worse weather.…”

“…Skaters' transform city spaces into playzones (Vivoni, 2009) through 'skaters' eye', the ability to assess the built environment for its skateability over conventional uses (Borden, 2001). When a location is repeatedly skated and valued by the skate community, it becomes a 'spot' and is embedded into a city's skateworld (Woolley and Johns, 2001;Jenson, Swords and Jeffries, 2012). The initial aim of our project was to map these spots and produce something for an architectural festival in 2010.…”

“…Skaters felt comfortable in their spaces and were more easily able do memory work in the places memories were formed, and negotiate their identities in them. In addition to the mappings and discussions around their creation, 100 hours of participant observation were undertaken, twelve semi-structured interviews conducted and a range of blogs containing photography, video and text were analysed (see Jenson et al, 2012). Together a rich source of information was gathered we could use to produce our mappa mundi of the Tyneside skate scene, but we faced a series of obstacles which we discuss in the next section.…”