A common construction method aimed at stopping skateboarding amounts to an "aggressive attempt to control urban space", University of Newcastle Professor Duncan McDuie-Ra says.
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Professor McDuie-Ra reached this conclusion in a research paper, titled Surface Tensions: Skate-Stoppers and the Surveillance Politics of Small Spaces.
He and colleague Jason Campbell stated that skate-stoppers are "a cheap way to implement control".
These devices stand as an alternative to "human and electronic surveillance systems".
Skate-stoppers are essentially rows of metal knobs. They aim to stop skateboarding damaging benches, handrails and ledges.
Skating on these surfaces can scratch them and leave paint, wax and worn edges. Skate-stoppers have been described as a form of "defensive architecture".
Once installed in a reactive way, they are now used in a proactive way during construction. Ironically, some skate-stoppers can "deter sitting and reclining" - sometimes on objects made for sitting.
Professor McDuie-Ra said skate-stoppers promote the idea that urban space should be free of particular social groups. That is, skateboarders and their propensity for the "inappropriate".
He noted that one company selling skate-stoppers stated that "inappropriate use of skateboards is a major problem". But he questioned who should get to decide what is considered "inappropriate".
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Skaters often remove the stoppers and fill gaps to make the surfaces slick for boarding.
Given such problems, skate-stoppers have been removed to defuse tensions between skateboarders and authorities in cities in Finland, Sweden and France.
In Newcastle, skate-stoppers "failed to stop skateboarding at Civic Plaza, resulting in a compromise with the local council".
"As part of this compromise, skateboarding is permitted in the plaza. Steel ledges were installed to improve skateboarding on some surfaces, making them easier to slide and grind."
The battle over skate-stoppers is an example of the long-running clash between skateboarders and conservative forces.
Skateboarding is a multi-billion dollar industry, but it struggles for acceptance.
Big industries usually get the protection of government and private interest groups, but street-skating invariably involves illegal activity.
"Skateboarding requires loitering, trespassing, vandalising and liberating urban objects," Professor McDuie-Ra wrote in his book, Skateboard Video: Archiving the City from Below.
The professor, who researches urban space, is also working on a new research paper, titled Skateboarding in the Empty City.
The paper delves into how skateboarders made use of urban space during the pandemic. Skateboarders brought creativity to cities around the world "in otherwise bleak times".
"In the pandemic, a lot of the cities that were usually full of people suddenly weren't," he said.
"The urban landscape was open for skateboarding at all times of day and night.
"That should have meant skateboarders got busted right away because there was so much COVID surveillance and public health concerns.
"But what authorities were concerned about was people being close to each other and crowding."
The freedom of skateboarding offered escape from the dystopian-like realities of the pandemic.
"Skateboarders flying through the urban landscape was the least of anyone's problems," he said.
The professor skated a lot around Newcastle during lockdown. Occasionally a police officer or security guard would stop him.
"I'd say 'I'm exercising'."
While this was true, the nature of skateboarding means it tends to attract suspicion from authorities.
"Skateboarding is not quite a sport, not quite a discreet culture, not quite political, not quite radical," Professor McDuie-Ra said.
It divides people outside the subculture, but connects them within it. Millions of skaters across the world often make connections "across racial, class and cultural boundaries".
The professor is a keen skateboarder, but previously kept his hobby separate from his academic life.
Then it struck him that the pursuit spanned "cultural, social, political and economic environments".
"I was interested in what skateboarding can tell us about cities and the way they're governed, built and developed. A lot of cities want what skateboarding has. Newcastle is an example. It wants to be creative, edgy and alternative."
Such cities have a desire to be permissive to creativity like skating, but "they also want control over where it happens".
The professor was in Lismore in January before the floods.
"They had a new creative precinct. The first thing I noticed was skate-stoppers on all the ledges.
"That's very interesting - a creative precinct where creativity is controlled and defined."
The professor wrote that skateboarding is "coveted by grander agents of capitalism", including fashion brands and broadcasters.
"No matter how much skateboarding gets commodified, there's still that anti-authoritarian, anti-establishment part to it," he said.
"It's an interesting era to think about skateboarding because it's going through one of those cycles where a lot of people want to cash in. Strangely one of the groups are city governments, but they're wary about their responsibilities to property owners."
His other recent book, Skateboarding and Urban Landscapes in Asia, has a big focus on China.
"China is a paradise for skateboarding because the cities are so new, have such good surfaces and no skate-stoppers," he said.
Authorities generally don't harass skateboarders in China.
"The public enjoy the spectacle of skateboarding," he said.
His book Skateboard Video highlights the contribution video has made to the subculture since the early 1980s.
"Skateboard videos bring little corners of cities around the world to a global audience," he said.
"There's a handrail in Wolfe Street in Newcastle. It's quite famous among skaters. Some of the videos shot there have been viewed over a million times."
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