Urban youth skateboarding: a social and bodily practice of Chilean youth in times of new identity constructions

Abstract

The study presented here aims to describe and analyze psychosocial aspects related to gregarious corporal and recreational activities carried out by children and youth on city streets, squares and in other public areas as well as in educational centers (schools, colleges and universities). For some educators and institutional authorities, the development of these new forms of corporal expression represent the genesis of a singular emergent problem, albeit associated with normal processes of development. The practices of these youth groups have been socially marked and stigmatized as deviant behavior linked to delinquency, drug addiction and dealing and so forth, associations that to a large extent are based only on particular subcultural habits such as style of dressing. This study presents the conceptual framework for research to be carried out on the children and youth who participate in these activities in the inter-urban centers of Concepción and Talcahuano (Chile), and may ultimately provide evidence for the notion that such bodily practices become a kind of opposition to the formal and traditional offer of forms of bodily recreation and entertainment which have not been able to engage large numbers of youth. Thus, these new practices may represent a new means of socialization which respects the diversity of young people’s modes of expression and the ways in which people use their free time and recreational opportunities.