ABSTRACT
One of the most apparent shifts in skateboarding’s development in recent years has been the presence of skateboarding organisations and charities that focus on working with communities experiencing acute or ongoing deprivation, war, or protracted conflict. Paul O’Connor coined the phrase ‘skateboard philanthopy’ (2016) to describe the broad framework through which they operate. Critical analysis around these organisations often employs discourse located within the fields of lifestyle sports or sport-for-development. This chapter proposes an alternative discursive framework for understanding skateboarding projects of this kind – through analysis related to discourse within the fields of dance and somatic practice.
Having established a groundwork for discussion, this chapter explores findings from research undertaken into the work of skateboarding charity, SkatePal; in particular, their Rosa skatepark and subsequent programme of annual skateboarding tuition in the West Bank (Occupied Palestinian Territories). These findings are organised around three themes: the development of self-knowledge, the symbolic dimension of skateboarding movement, and the showing of oneself (creative self-expression), which are presented as findings that come from observations of the skatepark and through interview material with local people who visit and use the park.
The final section of the chapter articulates another facet to skateboard philanthropy – through my own practice-based reflections of working at and occupying space in the skatepark as a woman. In my findings, I explore the gender-based dynamics operating within the space of the skatepark, and recognise the generosity afforded to those politics between local people and volunteers of SkatePal.
