Managing alternative sports: new organisational spaces for the diffusion of Italian parkour

Abstract

This article explores the encounter between parkour as an unstructured and culturally innovative practice, challenging both physical as well as organisational spaces, and UISP (Unione Italiana Sport per Tutti/Italian Union of Sport for All) as a sport-promotion body open to organisational and cultural experimentation. Drawing on a multi-method qualitative approach (analysis of documentary material, interviews and focus groups), it looks at the role of UISP in the diffusion and legitimisation of parkour within the Italian context, investigating the interplay between the cultural and organisational logics of both this new practice itself on the one hand, and the organisations that are trying to accommodate it on the other. The incorporation in a sport-for-all organisation like UISP provides traceurs with a safe and legitimised space, which is, however, ‘loose’ enough to maintain the fluidity of the practice. Nonetheless, by enabling the coexistence of different and competing definitions and uses of parkour, this fluid organisational space reproduces tensions among traceurs and weakens their voice in UISP's decision-making processes.

Keywords::

• parkour
• space
• organisation
• cultural politics
• youth

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

^1. We use the term ‘alternative’ or ‘new’ in both its etic definition (cf. Wheaton 2004, 2013) and in its emic use as a claim for authenticity and distinction by the actors involved.

^2. The development of parkour in Italy is still an overlooked issue within the social sciences: for a socio-semiotic analysis see Leone (2010); for an introductory reflexive contribution to the Italian audience, see Benasso and Stagi (2013).

^3. An interesting parallel could be drawn with the recently emerged Five Star Movement and its controversial attempt to develop innovative forms of political action and participation both within and against the established system (Bordignon and Ceccarini 2013).

^4. For a broader analysis of the incorporation process of action sports within the Olympic movement, see Thorpe and Wheaton (2011).

^5. As Gilchrist and Wheaton (2011, 127) point out, the reconstruction of the history of an emerging practice, implying the definition of its authenticity, is a battleground for different conflicting voices. Parkour is not exempt from this struggle, as we shall show when drawing the chronicle (defining key phases and actors) of its development in Italy.

^6. The concept of ‘organisational space’ is used here metaphorically (for different uses, see Halford 2004).

^7. We adopt the concept of scene (Straw 1991) to highlight the interconnection of contextual, structural, social and cultural dimensions of parkour as a practice.

^8. Here we follow traceurs’ use of ‘tribes’ and ‘crews’ as synonymous, but while the former is more conceptually and academically defined (Bennett 1999), thereby becoming an etic label, the latter derives from street cultures, being a more emic expression.

^9. That is from Italian Union Popular Sport to Italian Union of Sport for All.

^10. See, for example, the CSEN parkour national meeting hosted within the Festival of Fitness, the AICS Rome Parkour Day or UISP Sport Days.

^11. Accessed on March 15, 2014 from: https://www.facebook.com/manifestoitalianodelparkour.

^12. The presentation of the ADAPT program (http://www.adaptqualifications.com) is consistent with the worries expressed in the Italian Manifesto: ‘The ADAPT program of qualifications was created as a response to the rapid and widespread growth of the discipline of parkour around the world, which in turn led to people attempting to imitate the movements of the art without adequate training, understanding and/or preparation…. The ADAPT qualifications ensure that any individual who wishes to coach others in the art will do so in a knowledgeable, professional, competent and safe manner. The global network of ADAPT coaches also gives a new coach an existing resource of highly experienced coaches and coaching bodies to support him or her in their development as a coach…. To receive an ADAPT Instructor Qualification is to be approved to teach the discipline of parkour/art du déplacement by the foremost practitioners and teachers in the world, including the original Yamakasi and the traceurs from Lisses, Paris – the birthplace of parkour.’

^13. For the purpose of this article, we have only partially adopted a post-subcultural analytical framework. See Wheaton and Beal (2003), Donnelly (2006), and, more recently, Salome (2010).

^14. The street-workers course Lampi & Impronte dello Sport di Strada (Thunders & Tracks of Street Sport) in 2010–2011; the project Contamin-Azioni (Contamin-Actions) in 2011; the Krap Invaders Freestyle Festival in 2011 and 2012.

^15. Spazio Indysciplinati is managed by a steering group called FEI – acronym for the three UISP sectors of Formazione (Training), Politiche Educative (Education Policies) and Innovazione e Sviluppo (Innovation and Development).

^16. Accessed on March 16, 2014 from: http://www.uisp.it//nazionale/?contentId = 1898.

^17. Ibid.

^18. Ibid.

^19. Accessed on March 16, 2014 from: http://www.uisp.it//nazionale/?contentId = 1897.

^20. Accessed on March 17, 2014 from: http://www.uisp.it//nazionale/?contentId = 1860.

^21. Accessed on March 17, 2014 from: http://www.uisp.it/nazionale/extra/archivio_newsletter/preview_uispress.php?id_newsletter = 62&newsletter_type = uispress-articolo1htt.

^22. See their website: http://www.krapinvaders.com.

^23. On the website http://thejambo.it/ (accessed on May 26, 2014) the different logics are presented as coexisting and complementary, not as competing: ‘Try and learn the action sports // Partake in the contests // Enjoy the shows’.

^24. A different organisational strategy was adopted to co-opt skateboarding, which was assigned a specific activity code within the pre-existing Skating League.

^25. In September 2014 an assembly of all the UISP-affiliated parkour associations was held in Bologna, resulting in the creation of a Steering Committee involving some traceurs representative of the main geographical macro-areas and of different positions on the parkour scene.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Raffaella Ferrero Camoletto

Raffaella Ferrero Camoletto, PhD, is Assistant Professor in Sociology of Culture at the University of Turin, Italy. Her main research interests are focused on the social construction of the body, working on two specific realms of bodily practices: gender and sexuality performances and emerging sport practices.

Davide Sterchele

Davide Sterchele, PhD, is a Research Fellow at Leeds Beckett University, chair of the Young Researcher Award of the European Association for the Sociology of Sport and former coordinator of the Research Network 28 ‘Society and Sports’ of the European Sociological Association. His research interests are at the intersection of sport, identity, cultural practices and social movements.

Carlo Genova

Carlo Genova, PhD, is Assistant Professor in Sociology of Culture at the University of Turin, Italy. His main research interests are focused on subcultures and youth cultures, recently working on alternative uses of spaces in emerging youth practices.