Parkour and the city: risk, masculinity, and meaning in a postmodern sport

Synopsis

Parkour Is An Emerging Sport In Which Practitioners Train Themselves To Move Through Urban Environments In Creative And Often Risky Ways. Comprised Of A Pastiche Of Stylized Movements And Dependent On Youtube Videos, Parkour Is Quintessentially Postmodern, And This Book Studies Parkour From Within Its Sociological Context. The Book Traces The Sport's Development In Europe, Parkour's Growth Into A Worldwide Phenomenon, And The Meanings Local Chicago Practitioners Have Given To The Sport. The Book Explores The Dialectical Relationship Between Practitioners' Real World Activities And Global Flows Of Information. It Analyzes The City As A Site For Urban Adventure Seeking And Situates These Practices Within A Discussion Of Young Men's Masculine Identity Claims. Finally, The Risk-taking Commonly Seen In Parkour Is Connected To Practitioners' Symbolic Practices That Downplay The Dangers Of The Sport While Emphasizing Their Safety Precautions. Instead Of Pushing The Edges Of Survival, These Young People Insist They Have Trained Themselves To Be Highly Attuned Risk Assessors--individuals Capable Of Successfully Overcoming Challenges Of Any Sort. If Urbanism Is About The Lives Individuals Lead In The City, Parkour Represents A Unique Postmodern Interpretation Of That Way Of Life-- Introduction: Thinking Sociologically About Parkour -- Developing The Discipline And Creating A Sport -- New Prisms Of The Possible -- Young Men In The City -- Hedging Their Bets -- Conclusions: Appropriating The City -- Appendix A: Brief Note On Data And Method -- Appendix B: On The Parkour Terminology Used In This Book. Jeffrey L. Kidder. Includes Bibliographical References (pages 149-190) And Index.