“For all skateboarders and anyone with a passing curiosity about skateboarding, this book is a must-read. Beautifully written and illustrated, and drawing upon interviews with a diverse group of changemakers, Skateboarding, Power and Change is a highly accessible, engaging, and thought-provoking analysis of the ‘ethical turn’ in skateboarding. Written by two skateboarding academics, it offers powerful and moving insights into the various ways skateboarders are changing the world. Highly recommended.”
- Holly Thorpe, Professor of Sport and Gender in Te Huataki Waiora / School of Health at the University of Waikato, New Zealand
“Willing and Pappalardo address one of the great new developments in skateboarding – its increasing capacity to face matters of race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality, and to effect new modes of active change. Combining erudite analysis and sensitive reflection with numerous interviews of key change-makers in the skate community, they surface multiple voices, nuances, and routes forward. An impressive, provocative, and timely study.”
- Iain Borden, author of Skateboarding and the City: A Complete History (2019) and Professor of Architecture and Urban Culture at the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London.
SKATEBOARDING POWER & CHANGE
Is skateboarding a sport, an art form, a vehicle for expression, or some amalgamation of all of the aforementioned things and more? It depends on whom you ask but what is certain is that skateboarding in 2023 is in the middle of both a renaissance and a reckoning. With peaking popularity, participation, and visibility, skateboarding's grown from a toy to many diverse cultures across the globe. Along with the tricks, sessions, contests, brands, media, meet-ups, and events, there's a palpable change happening in the culture, focused on pushing skateboarding to reflect the diversity of those who embrace it.
This book aims to contribute to a deeper understanding of how change happens through the perspectives of key change-makers in skateboarding. Insights are shared by 42 remarkable individuals covering themes that include First Nations sovereignty and creative innovations, joy, resistance, and anti-colonialism, as well as anti-racism, Black Lives Matter, and Black and PoC skaters-run initiatives. The book also explores evolving forms of subcultural power and subcultural entrepreneurship, the rise of skatepark advocacy and city skate activism, and a growing focus on gender equity and empowering women, non-binary, and LBGTIQ+ skaters. Other topics covered include changes to skate media, the transformative power of satire and humor, the growth of consent education and awareness initiatives, and social projects on inclusion and belonging. The book provides a window into various forms of leadership, lived experiences, and expertise that has led to an ‘ethical turn’ in skateboarding today. The dynamic changes in skating are also connected to conceptual and theoretical frameworks drawn from contemporary skate research, skate journalism, and the field of sociology.
ILLUSTRATIONS BY ADAM ABADA
CONTRIBUTIONS FROM: Dani Abulhawa | Thomas Barker | Kyle Beachy | Alec Beck | Lisa Berenson | Kailey ‘Bayr’ Blackburn | L Brew | Amelia Brodka | Rhianon Bader | Izzy Cooper | Doyenne Skateboards | Kristin Ebeling | Paul Forsline | Bethany Geckle | Chris Giamarino | Brian Glenney | Tommy Guerrero | Keegan Guizard | Sarah Huston | Brennan Hatton | Norma Ibarra | Atiba Jefferson | Christian Kerr | Patrick Kigongo | Adrian Koenisberg | Denia Kopita | Lynn Kramer | Ryan Lay | Ashely Masters | Douglas Miles Senior | Douglas Miles Junior | Peggy Oki | Kevin Pacella | Ted Schmitz | Latosha Stone | Karlie Thornton | Timothy Ward | Alex White | Shari White | Cindy Whitehead | Kim Woozy
INFORMATION ON SKATEBOARDING POWER AND CHANGE HERE
