Parkour, counter-conducts and the government of difference in post-industrial Turin

Abstract

The following paper aims to offer a critical discussion of the unfolding politics of belonging and exclusion taking place in Turin’s regenerating cityscape as a way to illuminate the paradoxes, tensions and daily negotiations of emerging forms of social and spatial restructuring in the post-industrial city. In developing this analysis, we engage with an integrated methodological approach that privileges the voices and experiences of about 30 young men, mostly of migrant origins and aged 16–21, practicing parkour in the city’s public spaces. In addressing these issues, we focus on the participants’ engagement with one of the symbols of Turin’s (multi)cultural, community-oriented and creative renewal, the post-industrial urban park of Parco Dora in order to unpack the processes of inclusion/exclusion and the conduct of conduct enacted in the creation, management and use of the city’s regenerating areas. Our discussion of the participants’ ambivalent and contested practices in Turin’s cityscape enabled us to address how these young men re-inscribe tensions, instabilities and fault-lines relational to the ‘selective story-telling’ characterising Turin’s narratives of consensual transformation, post-industrial renaissance and (multi)cultural vitality. In particular, by engaging with the participants’ bodily and spatial negotiations in Turin’s public spaces through the lens of counter-conduct, we highlight the significance of recognising and examining partial, but productive forms of urban contestation within contemporary, pacified scenarios of urban regeneration.

Key words:

• Turin
• Parco Dora
• urban regeneration
• conduct of conduct
• counter-conduct
• parkour

Acknowledgements

Earlier versions of this paper have been presented at an “Osservatorio MU.S.I.C.” Research Seminar at the Department of Culture, Politics and Society at the University of Turin, in October 2015, and at the Leisure Studies Association Annual Conference at Leeds Beckett University in July 2017. The authors would like to thank the seminar organizers and discussants at the University of Turin, Raffaella Ferrero Camoletto and Giovanni Semi, as well as the audiences at both events for their insightful comments and questions.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 For an initial discussion on gender relations in parkour, see Stagi (2015) and Wheaton (2016).

2 The Comitato Parco Dora officially ceased its activities in 2015. The network of local institutions, businesses, bank foundations, and third sector organisations that composed its board has given continuity to the participatory and community-oriented public-private management of the park and the surrounding areas under the aegis of Turin Municipality, with no significant changes to the area’s governance to date (see Cianfriglia and Giannini 2017).

3 Here we use the term rationality as given by Rose and Miller (1992, 175) to mean the discursive fields within which the exercise of power is conceptualised, and the moral justifications for particular ways of exercising power by various authorities, are made explicit.

4 As sanctioned by the recent approval in August 2017 of the ‘Minniti-Orlando’ Decree Law providing ‘exceptional powers’ to Italian cities’ chief police magistrates in order to manage public spaces and migratory flows.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Nicola De Martini Ugolotti

Nicola De Martini Ugolotti is a lecturer at Bournemouth University and member of the Associazione Frantz Fanon in Turin.

Michael Silk

Michael Silk is a Professor and Deputy Dean (Resesarch & Professional Practice) in the Faculty of Management, Bournemouth University. Email: [email protected]