ABSTRACT
This chapter unpacks the concept of conviviality before applying it to street culture and to parkour. Using Barker’s concept of ‘mediated conviviality’ as its key point of departure, it argues that parkour is a neat vehicle to illustrate this concept and, further, that traceurs – the name given to parkour participants – are beginning to exhibit the attributes of skilled mediators and show evidence of self-regulatory practice and collaborative governance essential to a legitimised presence on the street. The chapter shows the importance of the attributes of skilled mediators in the power relations attendant to the use of public space for parkour and the role of the mobilisation of law in the socio-spatial processes underpinning the production of convivial space. Parkour originated in the Parisian suburbs and then exploded, seemingly overnight, in the mid-2000s to a wealth of urban centres, particularly large cities, where it continues to grow and develop as an everyday presence and cultural phenomenon.
