TY - JOUR AU - Ameel, Lieven AU - Tani, Sirpa PY - 2007/01/01 Y2 - 2024/03/28 TI - Säröjä kaupunkitilassa: parkour JF - Alue ja Ympäristö JA - A&Y VL - 36 IS - 1 SE - Artikkelit DO - UR - https://aluejaymparisto.journal.fi/article/view/64306 SP - 3-13 AB - <p>In this article we take a look at parkour, a new<br>urban physical discipline. We present parkour from<br>different angles, taking into account various issues<br>in geography and urban studies that it raises and<br>forces to reinterpret. First we set out to trace the<br>background of parkour and its media representation,<br>after which we discuss parkour as an example<br>of urban youth cultures. We then take a look at its<br>potential for interpreting the aesthetics of everyday,<br>banal landscapes. In order to provide parkour with<br>a broad theoretic and historic framework, we take<br>a look at earlier endeavors to reinvent urban space,<br>e.g. Baudelaire’s flâneur and the avant-garde experiments<br>of surrealists and situationists. Through the<br>encounters of practitioners of parkour (traceurs)<br>with other people, we analyze the unwritten rules of<br>how to use public space. Our analysis of this aspect<br>of parkour is guided by the concepts of tight spaces<br>and loose spaces. We conclude that parkour challenges<br>the way people interact with urban space, and<br>the way the city is experienced in terms of aesthetic<br>appearance and accessibility to (semi-)public space.<br>At the end of our article, we suggest some subjects<br>for further research.</p> ER -