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SPACES & FLOWS
www.SpacesAndFl ows.com www.SpacesAndFl ows.com
Volume 2, Issue 4
Skateboarding Spaces of Youth in Belfast:
Negotiating Boundaries, Transforming Identities
David Drissel
SPACES AND FLOWS: AN NTERNATONAL JOURNAL OF URBAN AND
EXTRAURBAN STUDES
http://spacesandflows.com/journal/
First published in 2013 in Champaign, llinois, USA
by Common Ground Publishing LLC
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SSN: 2154-8676
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2013 (selection and editorial matter) Common Ground
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Skateboarding Spaces of Youth in Belfast: Negotiating
Boundaries, Transforming Identities
David Drissel, Iowa Central Community College, USA
Abstract: The city of Belfast, Northern Ireland, has experienced a major political transformation and
urban revitalization since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in April 1998. Though the incidence
of sectarian violence has declined dramatically since the end of the Troubles (i.e., Northern Irelands
decades-long political conict), most residential neighborhoods in Belfast remain heavily segregated
between Protestants and Roman Catholics. Moreover, sporadic episodes of rioting and property de-
struction by sectarian youths continue to plague the city, particularly during the annual summer
marching season. As a relatively new phenomenon in Belfast, skateboarding is especially prevalent
in the mostly non-sectarian spaces of the city center. Protestant and Catholic young people often skate
together in the same vicinity, thus interacting with the urban other. The inuence of skateboarding
on the collective identities and ethno-religious perceptions of Belfast youth are investigated in this
paper, with an emphasis on the role of subcultural spaces in bridging the sectarian divide. Everyday
acts of resistance to traditional sectarian norms and values, occurring within the spaces of skateboard-
ing, are described and analyzed. The paper is based primarily on ethnographic observations and semi-
structured interviews with skateboarding teens and young adults, conducted by the author in Belfast
during July/August 2010.
Keywords: Belfast, Skateboarding, Youth Subcultures, Urban Space, Sectarianism, Ethno-religious
Identities, Collective Identities, Northern Ireland, Everyday Resistance, Extreme Sports
Introduction
T
HE POPULAR IMAGE of skateboarding is one of deant, nonconforming youths
engaged in a highly individualized and potentially dangerous recreational activity.
In virtually every major city of the world, skateboarders (known simply as skaters)
can be seen riding the ledges, curbs, ramps, railings, handrails, steps, benches,
planters, and plazas of the metropolitan spatial-milieu. Lacking the legitimacy of traditional
(mainstream) sports, the alternative sports subculture of skateboarding has gained a
modicumof ofcial acceptance only within the past fewdecades (Donnelly 2006:221). Most
notably, the United States Postal Service unveiled an extreme sports stamp collection
featuring skateboarding at the ESPN Summer X Games in San Francisco in 1999. Prior to
that time, government ofcials had routinely referred to skateboarding as a delinquent and
underground phenomenon; thus, many in the extreme sports community viewed this na-
tional recognition as a welcome form of social acceptance (Rundquist 2007:179).
Even so, numerous local ofcials and commentators continue to depict skateboarding in
a very negative light, pointing a nger of blame at skaters for such alleged infractions as
damaging private and public property, creating noise pollution, and endangering themselves
and others on the streets and sidewalks of urban centers. Skateboarders themselves did little
to help this negative image as the subculture developed in the 1980s and the dynamics of
Spaces and Flows: An International Journal oI Urban and ExtraUrban Studies
Volume 2, Issue 4, 2013, http://spacesandows.com/journal/, ISSN 2154-8676
Common Ground, David Drissel, All Rights Reserved, Permissions:
cg-support@commongroundpublishing.com
their identity became framed by aggressive attitudes, notions of indifference and rebellion,
spatially and bodily destruction, and competition, Steyn (2004:12) explains. In contrast to
professional skateboarding events and ofcial skate parks, street skating by youthful am-
ateurs in non-designated urban areas violates the government sanctioned frame of space
and imagination (Rundquist 2007:180). Characterized as a transgressive activity that chal-
lenges the regulations imposed on urban space (Chiu 2009:26), skateboarding is constantly
repressed and legislated against in cites around the world (Borden 2003:1).
This article explores the alternative youth subculture of skateboarding in Belfast, Northern
Ireland,
1
which was engulfed by internecine violence for decades due to an ideologically
driven dispute that fragmented the city along ethno-religious lines. Like the rest of Northern
Ireland, Belfast was plagued by a de facto civil war known as the Troubles from the late
1960s to the late 1990s, which pit Roman Catholic Irish nationalists against Protestant British
unionists. During the Troubles, Belfast experienced numerous deadly terrorist attacks against
civilians by paramilitary organizations and a prolonged military intervention by armed
British troops. The Troubles effectively divided Belfast into majority-Protestant and minority-
Catholic garrison-style neighborhoods or communities. But since the signing of the Belfast
(Good Friday) Agreement in April 1998, Northern Ireland has undergone a dramatic post-
conict political transformation, resulting in a signicant diminution of sectarian violence
in Belfast and other cities and towns.
Nonetheless, most residential neighborhoods, schools, community centers, and sports
teams in Belfast remain heavily segregated between Protestants and Catholics (Shirlow
2008:75). In fact, Belfast continues to be the most ethno-religiously divided city in Northern
Ireland (Mitchell 2008:142), with residential working class districts much more homogenous
today in sectarian terms than they were in the early 1960s (Calame and Charlesworth 2009:73).
Protective walls (peacelines), murals, grafti, ags, and curbside markings sharply delineate
neighborhood boundaries. Moreover, sporadic episodes of sectarian rioting, assaults, and
property destruction primarily perpetrated by young people continue to plague the city,
particularly in interface zones positioned on the borders of sectarian-residential neighborhoods
(Russell 2004:25). But in contrast to most traditional sports in Belfast, the alternative sport
of skateboarding has become increasingly prevalent in the social spaces and places of the
relatively non-sectarian, mostly non-residential, city center (Leonard and McKnight 2007).
Protestant and Catholic youths often skate peacefully together in the same social spaces,
thus interacting with the vilied urban other on relatively neutral ground (Leonard 2010:
336).
This ethnographic paper investigates the inuence of skateboarding on the collective
identities and sectarian perceptions of Belfast youth, with an emphasis on the role of this
underground sports-subculture in bridging the sectarian divide. Everyday acts of resistance
to traditional-sectarian norms and values, occurring within the subcultural spaces of skate-
boarding, are described and analyzed. The presence of shared spaces is emphasized in par-
ticular, based on the hypothesis that sustained socio-spatial interaction between Catholic
and Protestant youths effectively blurs sectarian boundaries and diminishes the salience of
traditional identication categories. The paper postulates that skateboarding in particular
helps to bring young people of diverse backgrounds together within the relatively non-sec-
1
Belfast has a population of 277,391 people, with a total of 579,554 in the metro area, according to 2001 census
gures.
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EXTRAURBAN STUDIES
tarian spaces of central Belfast, thereby challenging the residential status quo and strength-
ening the potential for peace building between Roman Catholics and Protestants throughout
the city.
Research questions addressed in this paper are as follows: What inuence, if any, has
skateboarding had on the sectarian identities and oppositional consciousness of young people
in Belfast? Howhas the socio-spatial milieu of Belfast been affected by skateboarding? Why
do certain youths become active participants in skateboarding while others react with distain
and hostility towards the subculture? What has been the role of ofcialdomin the contestation
of Belfasts skateboarding spaces, and howhave skaters sought to resist spatial hegemonies?
How does the intersection of religion, ethnicity, gender, and social class inuence the skate-
boarding subculture? What are the prospects for youth-based peacebuilding initiatives that
actively involve skaters in post-conict Belfast?
The paper rst examines many of the major theories of urban space, exploring the effects
of spatial contestations and social interactions on the collective identities of urban youth
living in divided cities such as Belfast. Next, a brief historical overview of the political con-
ict and related changes in social space that have occurred in Belfast over the last several
decades is presented. Subsequently, various theories of youth subcultures and the inuence
of skateboarding on Belfasts post-conict spatial environment are discussed. At this point,
the authors experiences in exploring Belfasts socio-spatial eld are described, which includes
selected excerpts from recent interviews with skateboarders in Belfast. The paper concludes
with a discussion of the main ndings of the project, including an evaluation of selected
comments made by respondents. Various recongurations of urban space and related changes
in the collective identities of Belfast teenagers and young adults are also analyzed.
Space in Divided Cities
Various cities around the world have experienced extended periods of internal spatial division
and group-based competition, as governments and non-state actors systematically have se-
gregated entire neighborhoods that are situated within a particular urban eld. In recent
decades, cities as diverse and far-ung as Berlin, Germany; Nicosia, Cyprus; Beirut, Lebanon;
Mostar, Bosnia-Herzegovina; Jerusalem, Israel/Palestine; Johannesburg, South Africa; and
Baghdad, Iraq; have been either ofcially or unofcially partitioned on the basis of such
factors as political ideology, race, ethnicity, religion, or some combination thereof. Several
such citiesincluding Belfasthave been directly bifurcated by massive walled structures
that rigidly demarcated space for years, physically fortifying particular urban zones from
intrusion by other municipal actors.
In almost all cases, divided cities are the direct consequence of the division of nations
and partitions of countries (Kliot and Mansfeld 1999:170), which usually have been accom-
panied by civil wars, insurgencies, or other forms of armed conict. Even after the civil wars
and other conicts have ofcially ended and some or all of the internal city walls have col-
lapsed, residents of divided cities continue to struggle with losses and missed opportunities
that are beyond compensation (Calame and Charlesworth 2009:1). Often complicating
urban reconstruction and peacebuilding in such post-conict cities are widespread prejudicial
sentiments, de facto segregation, social exclusion, dichotomous social institutions, and relat-
ively low-intensity inter-communal violence.
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DAVID DRISSEL
Within divided cities, urban space is both visibly and invisibly partitioned, with frequent
struggles waged between adversarial groups over segmented urban assets and territory, in-
cluding various neighborhoods (Sandercock 2008:222). Group members continually mark
spatial boundaries and view any alterations in existing borders as politically divisive acts
(Shirlow 2006:103). But the roles and activities of urban residents are somewhat ordered
and constrained by their distinctive habitus, i.e., a system of durable, transposable disposi-
tions, that are structured, inculcated and generative (Bourdieu 1977:53). People occupying
a similar structural position in social space are provided by their habitus with a long-lasting
(though not permanent) set of principles, representations, sensibilities, tastes, perceptions,
experiences, understandings, beliefs, lifestyles, and patterns of behavior; which exist in
contradistinction to other socio-spatial schema. Simply put, the habitus is a sense of ones
and others place and role in the world of ones lived environment (Hillier and Rooksby
2008:21).
Within any given urban eld, subordinate groups will seek to overturn the spatial order,
while dominant groups will actively defend their structural position with whatever power
resources best exemplify their habitus. As a space of forces or determinations, every eld
is inhabited by tensions and contradictions which are at the origin (basis) of conicts,
Bourdieu (2008) asserts, this means that it is simultaneously a eld of struggles or compet-
itions which generate change (47). Aside from overtly confrontational forms of intra-urban
conict, members of various social groups are involved in tacit negotiations to expand or
delimit spatial boundaries and related collective identities. Central to these negotiations is
the creation, transgression and sometimes evasion of boundaries. Such boundaries not only
mark where it is possible to go, but also who it is possible to be, McGrellis (2005b:517)
contends.
In this respect, collective identity formation is an active, creative course of action that is
heavily inuenced by spatial congurations and contestations. Though the larger social
structure affects the objective possibilities for interacting in particular kinds of social
spaces and networks, individual actors tend to organize their multiple identities in a hierarchy
of salience reecting their habitus and role-related choices (Stryker 1987:91). Moreover,
collective identities are directly related to the formation of specic group boundaries and an
oppositional consciousness designed to articulate grievances and resist domination. Long-
standing differences between adversarial groups are crucial in this regard, as the positioning
of a meaningful past infuses group consciousness with a narrative of continuity that ef-
fectively links past grievances to present-day circumstances (Neill 2001:5). Such narratives
tend to exaggerate differences between groups, while minimizing differences within groups.
Particularly when compared to the in-group, other urban actors are depicted as monolithically
impure, deviant, and dangerous. This is especially the case if a substantial degree of social
distance exists between groups, such as when neighborhoods are segregated or normal non-
adversarial inter-group relations are extremely limited or nonexistent (Sibley 1995).
According to the contact hypothesis, prejudice tends to ourish in such an insulated urban
atmosphere, particularly when positive interactions between members of different ethnic or
religious groups are apparently lacking (Allport 1954). Studies have found that prejudice
can be reduced through intergroup contact in egalitarian social settings when members of
different groups share a common goal and are interdependent in achieving that goal. But
contact between different groups in social settings can actually increase levels of prejudice
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EXTRAURBAN STUDIES
under certain circumstances, especially when such contact involves persons of unequal status
in competition with one another (Pettigrew and Tropp 2006).
Several empirical studies (e.g., Hendry et al. 1993, Pearce 1996) have revealed that urban
youth in particular tend to have strong emotional attachments to local spaces and places,
which serve as a major source of collective identity, group cohesion, and intergroup conict.
The neighborhood is especially important as an identity marker for youth, as localized spatial
orientations tend to depict non-residents (and new residents) as suspicious or unwelcome
outsiders. In many cases, various forms of harassment and even violence are directed at non-
residents who accidentally or purposively venture into a particular neighborhood. Such ter-
ritoriality can be best understood as a spatial strategy to effect, inuence, or control resources
and people by controlling area (Sack as cited in Hesse et al. 1992:172). Numerous demo-
graphic factors have been found to fuel spatial territoriality, including differences in status,
social class, race, ethnicity, religion, and local street-gang afliations; which tend to be
strongest among young men living in low-income locales (Cohen 1988). Thus, identifying
with ones neighborhood can become a form of defensive street masculinity, especially
when youths perceive of themselves as threatened or under assault by spatial outsiders or
dominant majority groups (Watt and Stenson 1998:253).
In turn, teenagers are frequently depicted as a potential threat to public order (Baum-
garnter 1988, Cahill 1990), nding themselves subjected to police harassment, public and
private surveillance, and temporal and spatial curfews in public spaces (Valentine 1996).
Indeed, urban revitalization schemes tend to involve the de facto privatization of public
space; i.e., unofcially excluding undesirable othersincluding loitering teens in general
and minority youths in particular-fromredeveloped locales (Berman 1986, Fyfe and Bannister
1996). The space of the street is frequently the only truly autonomous space that young
people construct and inhabit without constant adult supervision. Thus, hanging around, and
larking about, on the streets, in parks and in shopping malls, is one form of youth resistance
(conscious and unconscious) to adult power (Valentine et al. 1998:7). To paraphrase Paul
Routledge (as cited in McGrellis 2005a:58), such terrains of resistance frequently pose
major challenges to the socio-spatial status quo. The street is the stage of performance for
many young people, who often negotiate and adopt subcultural/countercultural identities
within the public domain that are contradictory and oppositional to the dominant culture
(messy, dirty, loud, smoking, sexual) (Malone 2002:163). From this vantage point, space
is lled not only with borders, but also borderlandsalternative spatial domains that tend
to blur and conate hegemonic distinctions (Tajbakhsh 2000:164).
Belfasts Spatial Schism
Like the rest of Northern Ireland, Belfast has experienced dramatic socio-spatial ssures
and recongurations over the years. Colonized by English and Scottish Protestant settlers
beginning in the eleventh century, Northern Ireland eventually became a majority-Protestant
British enclave within a predominately Roman Catholic island. Several observers have de-
picted the subjugation of Ireland by the United Kingdom as a form of racism with religion
serving as the primary signier. Indeed, the British/Protestant conquest of Ireland was
justied and advanced by a racial ideology that suppressed the indigenous population on
account of their supposed moral, intellectual, and other failings (McVeigh and Rolston
2007:3). Racialized and stigmatized by a hegemonic power, Irish Catholics were often treated
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as second-class citizens at best and subhuman at worst. As a racial indicator, religion in
Ireland acquired the rigidity which skin color has had elsewhere, McVeigh and Rolston
(2007) observe. Catholics were deemed to be inherently lesserlazy, unintelligent, violent
and rebelliouswhile the colonizer bore none of these characteristics (4).
Following a series of popular uprisings by Irish nationalists in the early 20
th
century, the
mostly Catholic twenty-six counties of southern Ireland gained their independence from the
U.K. The Irish Free State (and eventually the Republic of Ireland) was established with
Dublin as its capital. During the same period, Northern Ireland (i.e., Irelands northeastern
six counties, also known as Ulster) was ofcially separated from the rest of the island, be-
coming an integral part of the U.K. At the time of partition in 1921, Catholics composed a
majority of Irelands overall population, though they represented a distinct ethno-religious
minority in the Protestant-dominated North. This is still true according to the latest census
gures from 2001, with approximately 53.1% of Northern Irelands population identifying
as Protestant and 43.8% as Roman Catholic. However, it is important to note that the Cath-
olic minority in Northern Ireland has been growing faster than the Protestant population in
recent years, which will likely lead to a demographic transformation of the province within
the next fewdecades (Moriarty 2012). Belfast, which serves as Northern Irelands provincial
capital, is more evenly divided than the rest of the province, with 48.6% identifying as
Protestant, 47.2%as Catholic, and 4.2%indicating that they are either non-religious or afl-
iated with a non-Christian faith. Signicantly, Belfast is a young city with 19.5% of the
population under 16 years of age (Belfast City Council 2010).
The conict in Northern Ireland has been fueled not so much by religious intolerance per
se, but by political disputes between two adversarial ethno-national movements that use re-
ligion as a boundary marker (Shirlow and Murtagh 2006:15). In this regard, the two major
sides are the pro-British unionists and the pro-Irish nationalists, who traditionally have
held antithetical positions on the appropriate constitutional status of Northern Ireland. On
the one hand, unionists (mainly Protestants) want to retain the British-dominated union
of Northern Ireland with the U.K. On the other hand, nationalists (mainly Catholics) seek
to reunify the North with the rest of the island. One of the original sources of Irish nationalist
dissatisfaction with the British/Protestant control of the North had been the existence of
discriminatory practices in employment, housing, social services, law enforcement, and in-
sufcient representation in provincial and local government bodies (Ginty et al. 2007).
Over the years, the Irish nationalist movement grew in strength and became increasingly
confrontational. By the late 1960s, nationalists had adopted many of the tactics of the
American civil rights movement such as engaging in peaceful protest, while demanding
equal rights for Catholics. The start of the Troubles is traced back to a bombing at the Uni-
onist headquarters in Belfast in February 1966. Two days later, a reprisal bombing occurred
at a nearby Catholic school, with major sectarian riots ensuing soon thereafter. British troops,
deployed to the province ostensibly as peacekeepers, became embroiled in the conict, at
times angering both sides (Calame and Charlesworth 2009).
The often-violent crackdown by British troops and Protestant-dominated police departments
led to erce reprisals by militant Irish nationalists known as republicans. As the most
dogmatic wing of the Irish nationalist movement, republicans increasingly embraced terrorist-
style tactics in an attempt to expel British troops. Meanwhile, the extreme loyalist wing
of the unionist movement adopted similar tactics. During the Troubles, Northern Ireland
witnessed a dramatic escalation of sectarian violence orchestrated largely by paramilitary
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groups such as the Provisional Irish Republican Army and the Irish National Liberation
Army (on the nationalist/republican side) and the Ulster Defense Association and the Ulster
Freedom Fighters (on the unionist/loyalist side).
Belfast in particular became a very violent place during the Troubles, with more than
1,500 people killed
2
and tens of thousands injured within the city alone (Shirlow 2006:100).
Paramilitary groups rigidly delimited space throughout Belfast during this period, as neigh-
borhoods became increasingly segregated on the basis of ethnocentric creeds. Competing
ideological discourses justifying territorial control became paramount, with boundary mark-
ers such as murals, ags, and curb paintings becoming commonplace. Paramilitaries portrayed
themselves as the guardians of particular neighborhoods, effectively demonizing their ethno-
sectarian rivals. Inter-group violence was morally justied in this respect by framing the
other as monolithically malevolent and threatening. Indeed, paramilitary groups often exag-
gerated the alleged politico-religious homogeneity of segregated places in order to operation-
alize the difference between republican/nationalist and unionist/loyalist spaces (Shirlow
and Murtagh 2006:19).
There was an apparent hardening of ethno-national identities during the 1970s and eighties,
as a British identity for Protestants and an Irish one for Catholics became progressively
more popular (Muldoon et al. 2007:90). In effect, troubled Belfast became almost com-
pletely bifurcated into two dissimilar politico-spatial realms. Virtually every public accom-
modation was segregated to some extentfrom schools and recreation centers to hotels and
pubs. In political and popular jargon, two distinct communities existed, though in reality
they were reied social constructs symbolizing divergent collective identity projects. Most
obviously, numerous so-called defensive walls or peace lines were constructed within
various Belfast areas, beginning in the 1970s. These concrete interface structures were de-
signed to serve as buffer zones, situated between violence-prone sectarian neighborhoods.
Twenty-feet high in some places, such walls were erected to keep people in the same street
from rebombing and murdering each other (Ignatieff 1993:215216). Paradoxically, such
walls sharply reduced mobility and everyday contact between Catholics and Protestants,
thus generating even more suspicion, avoidance, and hostility (Shirlowand Murtagh 2006:57).
Post-troubles Space in Belfast
Progress was gradually made in the political sphere during the 1990s, beginning with inter-
mittent paramilitary ceaseres and culminating in the multiparty Good Friday peace
agreement of April 1998. This agreement dramatically modied the political status quo in
Belfast and throughout Northern Ireland. Ratied by a popular referendum in May 1998,
the agreement included a revamped Northern Ireland legislature with proportional power-
sharing guarantees for both major sects,
3
a new pan-Irish (North-South) council, a British-
Irish council, and other moderate reforms (Ginty et al. 2007:7). Since that time, terrorism
and organized paramilitary activity have largely dissipated and the sectarian civil war has
effectively ended.
2
Throughout of all of Northern Ireland, approximately 3,500 lives were lost as a result of the major sectarian violence
during the Troubles (McGrellis 2005a:53).
3
The newculturally inclusive Northern Ireland Assembly, located at Stormont in Belfast, was ofcially inaugurated
in 1999, though it has been temporarily suspended several times. However, a major compromise agreement between
the major parties was instituted in May 2007.
121
DAVID DRISSEL
However, Belfast continues to be highly segregated, with around 80 percent of residents
living in neighborhoods that are populated by more than 60 percent of the same religious
sect (Shirlow 2006:102). More specically, approximately two-thirds of Catholics (67.3
percent) and almost three-quarters of Protestants (73 percent) live in neighborhoods in which
at least 81 percent of the residents are from the same ethno-sectarian background (Shirlow
2008:78). Despite the ofcial decommissioning of weapons by the Provisional IRA
4
and
the Loyalist Volunteer Force, paramilitary groups continue to wield substantial power, par-
ticularly in low-income areas. Violent conicts between rival paramilitary factions (often
involved in organized crime) have continued unabated, though mostly at a relatively low
level of intensity. Such altercations are particularly common in interface zones bordering
predominantly Protestant and Catholic areas. Sectarian rioting in segregated neighborhoods,
targeted killings,
5
assaults, and vandalismperpetrated upon traditional symbols and institutions
of rival factions, have largely replaced the terrorist campaigns of the Troubles (Shirlow and
Murtagh 2006:3).
One of the largest and longest peace lines, constructed during the height of the Troubles
in the 1970s, continues to divide the Shankill (Protestant) community from the contiguous
Falls Road (Catholic) neighborhood. At least twenty-seven major barricades are positioned
between Catholic and Protestant residential neighborhoods in Belfast, while none have yet
been dismantled (Calame and Charlesworth 2009:5). In fact, nine new walls have been
constructed and most of the existing walls have been heightened or extended since the ofcial
end of the Troubles in 1998 (Shirlow 2008:79). Marking space discursively with such walls
serves only to generate greater social distance between the two ethno-religious communities.
Such barriers often give the citys interfaces a distinctive physical appearance, which is
reinforced by the frequent presence of bricked up, or derelict buildings, wasteland, sectarian
or paramilitary grafti, and vandalism (Russell 2004:22).
Sectarian-style political murals, including some with vividly violent imagery, continue
to be on display in various ethno-religious enclaves, thus signaling the territorial demarca-
tion of space in the city. The marking of space by muralists is designed to remind the
viewer of oppression and the perpetual need to celebrate examples of armed and civil res-
istance (Shirlow 2008:75). Such murals, which rst appeared in Belfast in the early 20
th
century, tend to be painted on the exterior gable walls of terrace-row houses. As Coulter
(1999) states, Wall murals represent an important device through which republicans and
loyalists seek to advance their own particular reading of the conict in Northern Ireland
(202). While walking through various sectarian neighborhoods, grafti featuring ethno-slurs
were observed by this researcher, including threatening messages directed at Huns (Prot-
estants) and Taigs (Catholics). Such murals, grafti, and other territorial markers reinforce
a climate of fear, prejudice, and separation, among the populace.
Moreover, Protestants and Catholics have maintained their own separate cultural infra-
structures since the Good Friday agreement was implemented (Nik Craith 2003). Each side
has retained their own highly segregated schools, businesses, leisure activities, newspapers,
etc. Approximately 95 percent of Northern Irelands youth currently attend religiously se-
gregated schools, according to recent data (Leonard 2010:333). Belfast only has a small
4
Other breakaway factions of the IRA have refused to decommission their weapons.
5
According to recent gures, 167 deaths have occurred due to sectarian violence in Northern Ireland since 1995.
There have been over 2,500 paramilitary style attacks during the same time period (McGrellis 2005a:53).
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handful of integrated schools, most of which are in relatively afuent areasaway from
working class neighborhoods. Both major population groups also continue to propagate
negative stereotypes about the ethno-sectarian other, including a distinct version of history
that paints the out-group as untrustworthy (Ginty et al. 2007:7).
Although there is substantially more mixing of people from different demographic back-
grounds in Belfast today than in recent memory, residents still perform their social life
along largely sectarian lines (Shirlow 2006:102). Recent surveys reveal that 82 percent of
Belfast residents would not enter a neighborhood dominated by the other sect at night, while
28 percent would not travel through such neighborhoods during daytime hours. Young
people, in particular, are much more likely than older folks to fear the other ethno-religious
community, according to recent surveys. Belfast residents ages 16 to 24 were the most likely
of all age cohort groups to avoid facilities in areas dominated by the other sect (Shirlow
2008:82).
Even most sports teams in Belfast remain highly segregated and contentious, with certain
sports connoting an Irish-Catholic identity (e.g., Gaelic football, hurling), while other sports
are de facto markers of British-Protestantism (e.g., rugby, cricket, hockey). Soccer teams
can be found on both sides of the sectarian divide, though Protestants and Catholics almost
always favor different professional teams. Such teams tend to employ sectarian symbolism,
thereby providing a powerful conduit for youthful expressions of ethnocentric beliefs and
emotions (Bairner 2008, Coulter 1999). Consequently, a young persons sporting preference
is often utilized as an indirect signier for determining an ethno-religious identity, which
can lead to violent altercations. Sports fans and players at times are victimized in Belfast
because their chosen sport is placed within a particular cultural tradition (Sugden and
Bairner 1993:16).
Most troubling, recreational rioting has become the extracurricular activity of choice
for youths living in the relatively impoverished ethno-religious enclaves of Belfast. Though
alcohol, drugs, and boredom often fuel such riots, the underlying motivation is mainly sec-
tarian. During the summer months of the annual marching season in particular, riots occur
in an apparent response to spatial intrusions by the ethno-religious other.
6
Such riots involve
young people gathered in large crowds at neighborhood interfaces throwing rocks, makeshift
pipe bombs, and spiteful slurs at one another (Porter 2010). However, there are also various
non-sectarian reasons for such periodic episodes of collective violence, including common
perceptions among youths that rioting is a traditional rite of passage. Rioting is also described
by participants as a collective form of rebellion, contestation, and the testing of authority,
whether that of the police, local paramilitary actors or other young people living in the area
(Mitchell and Kelly 2010:16).
Nonetheless, there are some positive signs of change, even in heavily sectarian neighbor-
hoods. For instance, a growing number of sectarian organizations have participated in re-
imaging projects, designed to transform murals into relatively non-violent depictions,
compared to past works (Mitchell and Kelly 2010:23). In the Shankhill Protestant-unionist
enclave, two former paramilitary militiamen of the Ulster Volunteer Force conducted a tour
6
Protestant fraternal organizations have numerous marches in the summer months to commemorate various historic
events. Most notably, the Orange Order marches annually on July 12 to celebrate the victory of English forces, led
by Williamof Orange, over the Catholic King James II at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690 (Calame and Charlesworth
2009:65).
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for this author that focused on sectarian murals in the neighborhood. Formerly convicted
and imprisoned for alleged terrorist activities in the 1990s, these two men are now in their
late thirties and working with youth at a local tness club. They are also directly involved
in revamping some of the most violence-laden sectarian murals in the Shankhill, thus seeking
to make such visual depictions less offensive to Irish Catholics. In fact, they pointed to a
mural that is currently being repainted for this purpose. Many of the young people they
mentor are involved in this project, which is supported with funds fromthe Belfast municipal
government. Were trying to help young people build up their self-esteem, while getting
them involved in projects that are community-based, one of the men explains.
In addition, a series of relatively new, non-sectarian murals were observed, which stretched
for over a mile on the main interface wall separating the Shankhill from the Falls Road area.
Known as the Meeting of Styles, this project has involved young people from both sides
of the sectarian divide in Belfast, as well as participants from around the world. Inclusive
slogans on the wall include, We are all connected and Free us all from the prison of
mistrust, misunderstanding, and misdeeds.
Signicantly, the role of young people in the peacebuilding process is often overlooked
or minimized in discussions about post-conict Belfast and the rest of Northern Ireland. In-
deed, the vast majority of international media coverage tends to focus on the big picture
of armed violence, competing political interests, and compromises involving the partisan
representatives of the two main ethno-sectarian communities. Whenever young people are
mentioned in such accounts they are almost always portrayed as tragic victims of sectarian
attacks on the one hand, or the violent perpetrators of internecine conict on the other, but
rarely as potential agents of positive social change. For this reason, it is important to explore
the everyday lives and attitudes of Belfast youth, particularly with regard to their feelings
and concerns about the ethno-sectarian other. Observing daily interactions between Protestant
and Catholic youths in public places can be especially valuable in this regard. As McEvoy
(2000) contends, It is the currently disenfranchised young (those under 18) who will determ-
ine the success or failure of any peace process in the long term (8788).
The Subculture of Skateboarding
One way in which collective identities can be potentially transformed in Belfast and other
urban environments is through the creation of informal youth subcultures, i.e., groups of
teenagers and young adults sharing certain common cultural features, yet appearing to have
values, norms, beliefs, symbols, and attitudes that differ substantially from the larger culture
(Bennett 2001). Described as meaning systems, modes of expression or lifestyles developed
by groups in subordinate structural positions, youth subcultures exist in a state of systemic
contradiction with the parent culture (Brake 1985:8). Though subcultural membership is
mostly informal and ephemeral, adherents tend to express their collective identities by dis-
playing a relatively distinct fashion style, engaging in non-standard leisure activities, parti-
cipating in underground music scenes, and utilizing esoteric slang.
The origins of the global skateboarding subculture are often traced back to surfers in
southern California during the 1950s and sixties, who opted to engage in sidewalk surng
periodically, particularly when the oceanic tides were too at for performing their preferred
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dude-sport.
7
Fully crystallizing as its own distinct subculture in the late 1970s, skateboarding
became popular due in part to a drought in southern California that provided newly available
spaces for skating in the form of empty backyard swimming pools. Skaters soon were tres-
passing into suburban pools with reckless abandon, effectively transforming them into ter-
rains of pleasure and contestation (Vivoni 2009:135). The growing popularity of skateboard-
ing prompted private entrepreneurs to unveil large for-prot skate parks across the United
States. But by the early 1980s, most such parks had gone bankrupt due to a signicant decline
in membership coupled with skyrocketing insurance premiums (Borden 2003).
Consequently, street skateboarding emerged in the early 1980s, which directly challenged
the spatial hegemony of plutocratic elites. Skaters, acting effectively as spatial-scouts, dis-
covered new spots in which to perform their trickswhether in the grimy underbelly of
bridges and underpasses, or on the exigent terrain of public squares, downtown nancial
districts, and college campuses. The image of skateboarding youth with shaggy hair and
baggy pants, appropriating space in the parking lot of the local strip mall, became both
iconic and iconoclastic. Skateboarding was soon depicted as a deviant, alternative lifestyle
that includes various adrenaline-fueled, oppositional-spatial practices. Hence, skateboarding
was framed as a cultural site of social resistance that challenges dominant norms and values
(Vivonia 2009:131).
In effect, skaters tacitly colonize and appropriate the concrete-asphalt urban habitat in
unconventional ways, often nding themselves in direct conict with the ofcial custodians
of hegemonic-consumerist spaces (Borden 2003:53). In particular, business owners, police
ofcers, and municipal ofcials often accuse skaters of trespassing, loitering, vandalism,
and other delinquent and criminal behaviors. While authority gures tend to viewskateboard-
ing primarily as an anarchistic, deviant disruption of social order and commerce, skaters
generally depict their daily spatial performances as a playfulthough intenseform of recre-
ation, an expression of artistic style, and a competitive test of skill, technique, and creativity.
As Weyland (2002) remarks, Skateboarding is misunderstood because it is outside the nor-
mal scheme of things. Skating isnt nice. Its ugly and beautiful at the same time, a physical
activity that isnt really a sport but is denitely a way of life (7).
As a youth subculture, skateboarding involves meaningful social interactions with like-
minded peers that share similar body movements, argot, and values. Skateboarders create
their own subculture; a social world in which self-identifying values and appearances confront
conventional codes of behavior, Borden (2003:137) observes. The values of skateboarding
include risk-taking, adventurism, hedonism, irreverence, fatalism, and a rejection of adulthood
and its traditional familial conventions. As Weyland (2002) remarks, The essence of skate-
boarding is an urge for speed and a desire to manipulate the board and the body in a release
of energy that combines skill with voluntary induced danger. Skaters simultaneously draw
on elements of the death wish, thrill seeking and meditation, using gravity as a fulcrum for
propulsion while defying it to soar into the air (6).
Paradoxically, skateboarding has blossomed over the years into a multi-million dollar in-
dustry that includes specialized equipment, clothing, magazines, lms, and websites. Often
hyped as an extreme sport, skateboarding features global corporate media images, mer-
chandise, and spectacular mega events (Vivoni 2009:130). As a result of globalization and
7
The original skateboards, known as scooter skates, reportedly rst appeared in California in the 1930s1950s,
though these were makeshift contraptions constructed by children (Borden 2003:13).
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DAVID DRISSEL
related corporate-market penetration strategies, the international popularity of skateboarding
has increased dramatically, particularly among young middle-class males. Whilst homemade
and second-hand accessories are available, the reality is that skateboarders need typically to
be frommiddle and upper-middle class backgrounds to afford the equipment and accessories,
Steyn (2004:15) states.
Research Methodology
This paper is based primarily on a micro-ethnographic study of Belfast young people, which
includes semi-structured, open-ended interviews with forty-two skateboarders (ages 13 to
31) that were encountered in various public settings in July and August 2010. In contrast to
macro-ethnography, micro-ethnography focuses mainly on face-to-face interactions and on
particular incisions at particular points in the larger setting, group, or institution (Berg
2009:193). Utilizing a micro-ethnographic methodology can facilitate the implementation
of a participatory interview approach that is focused on examining subcultural variations
within a specic urban habitus. Modeled directly after Fines (2003) peopled ethnography,
this research project endeavored to provide primacy to the observation of interactions but
always grasping these within structural conditions (46). Such an approach addresses central
theoretical issues that are based directly on data retrieved from the subjects under study.
This research project remained focused on examining the everyday lives of young people
who have been socialized in Belfasts polarized socio-cultural environment. But rather than
simply asking respondents about their ethno-religious identities, this study sought to under-
stand the everyday interactions of actors operating within the dominant urban habitus.
In order to solicit respondents, this researcher approached skaters and their friends hanging
out in various unofcial skateboarding spots in the city, which are located primarily in town
squares and plazas. In many of the places in which respondents were identied, crowds had
formed that contained temporary clusters of young people. The vast majority of respondents
were in groups interacting with friends and acquaintances, often relaxing briey between
frenetic bouts of skating. Such prosaic gatherings of youth develop when members are
free from work, school, or similar obligations (McPhail 1994:37). Effectively engaged in
subjective soaking, this writer abandoned the idea of absolute objectivity or scientic
neutrality (Ellen 1984:77) and became immersed in the local skateboarding scene. Gaining
the trust of an older skater, Mike, helped immensely in this regard. Mike invited this writer
to attend a ska-punk show at a local live-music venue, which had the effect of establishing
mutual bonds of trust. Perceived by Mike and other skaters to be a subcultural insider in
the transnational punk and ska scenes, this researcher gained greater access to potential
skater-respondents. Sustained contact with Mike triggered the snowball effect, since his
visible support in skateboarding spaces was very helpful in identifying prospective respond-
ents for interviews.
Interview questions dealt primarily with skaters descriptions of their collective identity
and related spatial interactions in Belfastincluding the relative importance of religion, eth-
nicity, and political ideology in shaping their identity and how they perceive skaters from
the other major ethno-religious community. Respondents were asked about the relative im-
portance (or lack thereof) of their ethno-national identity and how they perceived members
of the other major ethno-religious community. In addition, respondents were encouraged to
cite any major challenges or types of opposition that they have faced as skaters in Belfastboth
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from ofcialdom and other youths. Relevant demographic information was solicited from
all respondents (e.g., age, neighborhood residence, school, occupation), and a series of follow-
up questions were designed to encourage the free expression of individual feelings and
concerns. Consequently, several subjects shared stories about how they rst encountered
skateboarding and the inuence of the subculture on their identity.
Respondents often seemed surprised by this researchers line of questioning, particularly
when asked about their ethno-religious identities and related issues. It is certainly possible
that several subjects decided simply to say what they thought this researcher wanted to hear.
Based on brief observations of skaters and conversations with various young people during
an earlier trip to Belfast in 2006,
8
this writer had assumed that skating tends to bring youths
together from both sides of the sectarian divide. Thus, the expectation in the current study
was that most young people skating together in the city center would not be overtly sectarian.
However, to avoid the potential problemof the Hawthorne Effect, several follow-up questions
that probed into the subjects background were asked, which provided respondents additional
opportunities to be frank and honest. Several of the same young people also were observed
at various other skating spots, which provided additional opportunities to assess the veracity
of their statements in slightly different spatial environments.
During the course of the interviews, extensive eld notes were taken, but on a fewoccasions
this researcher simply jotted down responses immediately after an interview (or set of inter-
views) had ended. More often than not, conversations with young people for this study were
not full-edged structured interviews. In fact, the average length of time for an interview
was approximately fteen minutes. However, this approach successfully elicited comments
from respondents who might otherwise have refused a request for a formal interview. The
relatively uid, participatory interviewing style seemed to put respondents at ease, particularly
given the often hectic and noisy atmosphere in which the research was conducted. In examin-
ing the data, statistical methodology was not utilized, but rather a purely qualitative approach
was adopted in which selected comments from respondents would inform the analysis. In
order to insure condentiality, this paper uses pseudonyms for all respondents.
Belfasts Skateboarding Subculture
In terms of their religious-sectarian origins, respondents among Belfast skateboarders inter-
viewed for this research project included eighteen Protestants, twenty-two Catholics, and at
least two from interfaith families. The social class backgrounds of Belfast skaters in the
dataset are quite mixed, with approximately nineteen respondents having presumably middle
class backgrounds (based on neighborhood origins), while twenty-three subjects hail from
working class and lower class neighborhoods. Interestingly, all of the skaters observed in
this study are young males between the ages of 12 and 31. Among the young men interviewed,
the median age is 17. This writer was informed that there are at least a few female skaters
in Belfast, but did not personally witness any in his two-week visit in July and August 2010.
Problematically, the social construction of skateboarding as a masculine subcultural en-
deavor is bolstered by multinational commercialized representations. As Borden (2003)
notes, Skateboarding remains a predominately male activity and most skate publications
usually refer to skaters using the male terms of he, him, his, etc. (144).
8
For more on this writers preliminary ndings about youth people and skateboarders in Belfast, see Drissel (2007).
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DAVID DRISSEL
However, several young women were observed interacting with skaters on a regular basis
within the same social spaces. For instance, 13-year old Orlaigh explained that she enjoys
hanging out at skateboarding spots, even though she does not skate. As a Catholic girl from
a sectarian neighborhood in North Belfast, she has personally experienced violence on sev-
eral occasions. She notes that her school is located in a nearby Protestant area, which leads
to constant stones being hurled at Catholic youths as they walk to and from school. On one
occasion, she was hit in the head and seriously injured. But in the skateboarding spots of the
city center, she nds refuge from such altercations. You dont even know whos Catholic
or Protestant here, she says cheerfully.
As is the case in Belfast, skaters around the world often claim to resist the corporate
commodication of their lifestyle, thereby constructing a collective identity that expresses
a transnational ethos of rebellion and authenticity. As Steyn (2004) observes, Skateboarders
tend to view themselves as innovators and creators of a new movement, despite the wealth
of contradictory imagery they surround themselves with (14). Thornton (1997) has coined
the term subcultural capital to refer to the interactive process of achieving in-group
prestige,
9
noting that such capital confers status on its owner in the eyes of the relevant
beholder (202). Accruing subcultural capital involves spurning the mainstream symbol-
ically, while expressing personal tastes or attributes that are deemed to be authentic by
ones subcultural peers (Weinzierl and Muggleton 2003).
Consequently, one of the apparent motives for identifying with the subculture of skate-
boarding is the potential to receive status-based acclaimfromlike-minded others. For instance,
many skaters observed in Belfast displayed cool graphics and rebellious slogans on their
skateboards (e.g., Free Palestine, Build Ramps, Not Bombs), which are highly prized
by their subcultural cohorts, thus accruing subcultural capital. In particular, skaters effectively
earned subcultural capital by performing skating maneuvers that were deemed to be innov-
ative or creative by fellow skaters. Youre respected more in the skateboarding community
if you can do better tricks, one 17-year old Belfast skater said.
While skateboarding is part of a global network of approximately like-minded practition-
ers, it is also highly localized in its specic manifestations (Borden 2003:2). In interviews
with Belfast skaters, it was found that several respondents have embraced the practices and
personalities of the original American skateboarding archetype, while at the same time incor-
porating local concerns into their subcultural identity. For instance, three respondents men-
tioned the inuence of the celebrated American skateboarding pioneer, Tony Hawksnick-
named the Birdman. Jason, a 17-year-old skater with a Protestant background, recalls that
he rst started skating with a neighborhood friend after being exposed to a Hawks videogame.
Soon thereafter, he decided to seek out newskateboarding-cohorts in the city center. Skating
inuences the way you dress and stuff, including the type of shoes you wear, and longer
hair too, he admits. Cian, 23-years-old, started skating when he was fteen, after being in-
uenced heavily by MTVs skating sensation, Ryan Sheckler. Hes the teen idol of skat-
ingRyan helped to revamp the negative, anti-social image of skateboarding, Cian claims.
One common theme that emerged amongst respondents is the comparison between
mainstreamsports and skateboarding in Belfast. Dennis, 17-years-old and Protestant, contends
that mainstream British sports such as rugby and hockey are too militaristic for his tastes.
9
Thornton draws heavily on the work of Pierre Bourdieus related concept of symbolic capital (Weinzierl and
Muggleton 2003:9).
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The government uses sport to encourage patriotism and loyalty, he states. I dont like the
way such sports are advertised. But skateboarding is different. Sixteen-year old Sean, who
grew up in a Catholic neighborhood, recounts how his views about skateboarding evolved.
I was into hurling and Gaelic football when I was younger. I used to be narrow-minded and
thought that skaters were shit, he states. But when I turned fourteen, I started to change.
I met Owenwhos a skater. I thought it was a good sport, so I took it up.
Several respondents observed that the Glasgow Rangers are the preferred professional
soccer team for Protestants in Belfast, while Catholic residents heavily favor the Glasgow
Celtics. As one 15-year-old skater from North Belfast claimed, ghting over sports is the
norm for young people. In my Catholic neighborhood, kids have grown up not to like the
Rangers. If you live in my neighborhood, you favor the Celtics; but if you are walking across
town with a Celtics cap, you would get beat up. Sixteen-year-old Jordan, raised in a Prot-
estant neighborhood, makes a similar observation, comparing soccer to skateboarding.
Skating is not like football. There isnt any hate between us. Were just one team.
Many skaters complained about harassment from other young people that they derisively
call spides and chavs. The term spide originally referred to violence-prone Belfast
teens (especially young males) that joined paramilitary organizations or related youth-based
support groups during the Troubles. Some of these groups were known as tartan gangs,
so named because of the traditional Celtic plaid (tartan) clothing worn by members. Tartan
youths were labeled in popular discourse as spideswhich is short for the spider-like design
of their plaid attire. In current Belfast argot, spides more specically refer to young
Catholic working-class toughs, while chavs are the British equivalent.
10
They are scumbags
who live in sectarian neighborhoods, one 18-year-old Catholic skater remarks. Brennan, a
14-year old Protestant skater agrees, noting, If someone is skating and having fun, spides
or chavs will mess with you. It makes them feel harder to mess with us, but theyre really
assholes.
Skateboarding Spaces of Belfast
Skateboarders in Belfast, like their subcultural cohorts in other cities around the world, ne-
gotiate and appropriate the spatial terrain of the city, designating unofcial spots for
skateboarding. In the case of Belfast, the vast majority of such spots are located in the city
center, which appears to be relatively non-threatening. In sharp contrast to segregated resid-
ential neighborhoods, this writer could not nd a single example of sectarian murals or
grafti within the city center. Rather, grafti pieces in the city center are mostly hip-hop
inuenced with typical tag names written on walls in elaborate neon spray-can colors. Very
little of the city centers grafti is overtly political, though there are a few examples of wall
art emphasizing peace and one calling for class war. It seems as though the city center
is relatively neutral in political orientation, compared to many other parts of town that con-
tinue to be deeply politicized and operating under a streetwise code of sectarian particularism
and macho bravado.
10
Throughout the United Kingdom, the term chav generally refers to working class youths that are fashion-
conscious, often combining expensive sportswear, designer clothing, and conspicuous jewelry (often fake) with
street-savvy attire and argot. They are frequently stereotyped as being disrespectful of authority, ethnocentric, lazy,
violent, and delinquent (Jones 2011).
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DAVID DRISSEL
However, Belfast skaters frequently encounter concerted opposition from city ofcials,
police, and security guards that are intent on protecting the revitalized spaces of capitalist-
consumption in the city center from delinquent intruders. When this writer rst visited
Belfast in 2006, he witnessed numerous skaters performing tricks on the grandiose courtyards
of the refurbished waterfront, in close proximity to the Hilton Hotel and other architectural
symbols of opulence. Upon returning to Belfast in 2010, this researcher discovered that
skaters effectively had been banished from the main waterfront area, as a consequence of
police harassment and the installation of anti-skateboarding bumps. Skaters had relocated
to nearby Custom House Square; but even this new spot was threatened by ofcialdom.
Security guards tried to kick us out of our new spot at Custom House, but this is the last
place that we have left, so we refused to leave, one young skater explains. We used to
have the waterfront, so this is our last stand. Another skater complains that skateboarding
gets a lot of bad press and is often compared unfairly to vandalism.
Surrounding Custom House Square are some of Belfasts oldest landmarks, including the
Albert Clock, the Northern Bank, and Scottish Amicable. In observing the square on numerous
occasions, dozens of young men were seen skateboarding, in-line skating, and biking, while
others were observed interacting with friends and acquaintances. Mostly teenagers were
seen in the vicinityincluding a signicant number of girls on the sidelines. Many of the
skaters were clad in t-shirts emblazoned with American or British rock and rap artists. A
few youths were dressed in gothic black, while others sported spiked hair and punk attire
and/or skater-style sports clothing. Civility seemed to predominate on the courtyard, as nu-
merous clusters of youths engaged in uid and intermittent conversations with various people.
Paraphrasing Elijah Anderson (2004), the entire courtyard appeared to be covered metaphor-
ically by a cosmopolitan canopy, in which friendly banter predominated. Notably, neither
a single ght nor verbal altercation at the square was observed in the course of this research
project.
During visits to Custom House Square and other skateboarding spots in the city, several
of the youths conceded to this researcher that an awareness of sectarian identity continues
to exist among skaters, but such feelings are presumed to be largely irrelevant in the shared
spaces of skateboarding. As Luke, 16-years old and Protestant, explains, Religion doesnt
come up at the square. Its not about religion, its about doing tricks and having fun. Sixteen
year-old Dannyraised a Catholicexclaims, In skateboarding, nobody cares if youre a
Catholic or Protestant. Its like a big family. Another young skater simply states, Skating
is our religioneven though were fromdifferent sides of the community. Connor, 17-years-
old and Catholic, agrees, noting, The good thing about skating is that we come fromdifferent
areas of Belfast. I have loads of Protestant friends from skating. Everyone comes here
(Custom House) to skate and hang about.
Several respondents admit to having had a sectarian identity at some point in their lives,
though many claim to have distanced themselves from that identity or even renounced it al-
together. For instance, Jude, 17-years-old and raised a Catholic, claims that religion is not
even a factor in his present-day identity. My identity is built with myself. Your culture,
your family, your intereststhats what builds up your identity. Interestingly, some of the
strongest anti-sectarian views were expressed by skaters who were raised in mixed-sectarian
households. None of that shit matters, recalls Mikethe progeny of an interfaith marriage.
At 31-years-old, Mike is the oldest Belfast skater interviewed for this study. Religious
sectarianism is all too insular, unlike skateboardingwhich is a true community, he states.
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In certain parts of Belfast, hate is bred into kids and growing worse with each generation.
Its a problem with ignorance and a lack of true spirituality. Nineteen-year old Damien,
who also was raised by parents of different sects (i.e., a Catholic mother and Protestant
father), expresses similar sentiments, as follows:
I dunno howto describe my identity. Imjust me I guess. Religion wasnt ever important
to me. I didnt really know about the whole Catholic/Protestant thing until I was about
13 and never really cared. Its not really a general thing. Its just you get chavs who are
just all about their religion. No one else I know seems to care about it. Skateboarding
has just changed the way I view things in general. I look at stuff a lot different these
days because of it and its given me a sense of freedom for meeting new people. Ive
never once been asked or heard any one ask another skater what religion they are. It
just isnt important to us.
Nonetheless, several skaters readily acknowledge their ethnic/nationality roots, though
they tend to deemphasize such considerations compared to their identication with the skate-
boarding scene. I would say Im an Irish non-observant Catholic, 16-year-old Eoghan
states. But all of my friends are from different places in Belfast. We just want to have fun
skating. Similarly, Johna young Protestantrefers to himself as Northern Irish but refuses
to embrace the unionist label of British. One of my best friends is Catholic; we met
through skating, he states proudly. Tom, 14-years old, was raised in a Catholic Irish-nation-
alist environment but became a self-professed liberal atheist soon after he started skate-
boarding. Im not a republican or anything. I feel that we should get on with our lives.
Though Im proud of my Irish roots, we should never shove our beliefs in other peoples
faces. Niall is fteen and was raised in a sectarian household with family members that are
avid IRA supporters; but he claims that skating has transformed his beliefs from sectarian
to culturally inclusive. As he states, We dont come here to ght, we come to skate. I enjoy
skateboardingall of my mates are here.
Afewyoung people readily acknowledged that they are actively involved in peacebuilding
initiatives that feature skateboarding. At the time of this research project in 2010, the Belfast
city government had recently approved the construction of a new skate park. Ciaran, 23-
years old at the time of the interview, recalls how he was raised in a Roman Catholic neigh-
bourhood; but in recent years has been actively involved in organizing cross-community
events for skateboarders and lobbying municipal authorities for the new park. Unlike most
other respondents, Ciaran grewup in a suburban village, Dunmurry, which is ofcially located
within the Greater Belfast conurbation and has an almost equal number of Catholics and
Protestants. Unlike many urban areas of Belfast, Dunmurry does not have any type of walled
structures dividing Catholic fromProtestant areas. However, spatial divisions exist informally
with ags, murals, and other symbols designating exclusionary sectarian spaces. Ciaran recalls
that he did not fully understand sectarianismin his childhood, only encountering intolerance
overtly for the rst time in his adolescence. He claries that he adopted various prejudicial
sentiments in reaction to Protestant sectarianismfor a time during his teenage years. However,
he underwent a gradual positive transformation, due in part to his involvement in the skate-
boarding subculture. As he explains:
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DAVID DRISSEL
Dunmurry was mainly split in half. One end is Catholic, the other Protestant. If you
went too far into the village you would have that sense of all eyes watching you. My
neighborhood was mainly Catholic. Back when I was a child (late 1980s early 90s) and
even before that, most people fromeither religious backgrounds mainly lived in an area
with similar religious background. It was the belief that you were safe within your
own community of similar religious background. Being young, I really didnt understand
the feeling of prejudice. The feeling was that if you were Catholic, you mainly only
communicated with other Catholics. As I got older I began to realize this (prejudicial)
feeling. Today that prejudice has disappeared a lot from me. I have friends with both
communities and not once have we ever had grudges to do with our religious back-
grounds. If anything we joke about it!
As a skateboarding-activist committed to bringing down sectarian barriers in Belfast and
the surrounding metropolitan area, Ciaran has been integrally involved in helping to design
the new skateboarding park and designating its name. As he explains, We decided to call
the park Bridges Urban Skate Park because not only is it under a bridge but it portrays the
idea of communities coming together throughout Northern Ireland. Ciaran is passionate
about such bridge-building projects, noting proudly that his skateboarding team often
mentors younger skaters in sectarian neighborhoods and uses their group website to spread
the word about upcoming skateboarding activities. We use this website to not only promote
the park, but also to do cross-community events with Catholic and Protestant youth groups,
he states. In a recent e-mail to this writer, Ciaran revealed that the new Bridges skate park
opened to the public in June 2011. Ciaran claims that the park thus far has been instrumental
in improving cross-community relations in Belfast and the surrounding metropolitan area.
As he states:
The new Bridges skate park has been fantastic. It has exceeded all expectations. The
environment is friendly and always open to new users. It has helped me rekindle my
passion for skateboarding and also helped a lot of the older generation get back into
the sport. The new park has helped cross-community relations. Bridges in Belfast is in
a neutral area. This helps create a safe haven for anyone that wants to learn the sport.
Religion has never really been an issue within skateboarding and I cannot think of one
incident that it has been a problem.
Conclusion
For decades, Belfast residents existed in politically bounded sectarian-space that dened
and delimited their collective identity choices. Residents experienced a growing hardening
of dichotomous identities (British-Protestant unionist or Irish-Catholic nationalist) as polit-
ical tensions escalated during the Troubles. Eventually, Northern Ireland achieved some
semblance of political cohesiveness resulting from the Good Friday accords, though the
socio-cultural sources of division within Belfast have continued to linger. Much of Belfast
remains heavily segregated along ethno-religious lines, especially in working-class residential
areas. The city contains a dual cultural infrastructureincluding separate educational institu-
tions and sports teams, thereby further bifurcating the spatial milieu of youth. Despite their
physical proximity within the same city, Protestant and Catholic youths often experience
132
SPACES AND FLOWS: AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF URBAN AND
EXTRAURBAN STUDIES
markedly different forms of socialization. Such a spatial ordering of the city is prone to
hegemonic discourses of otherness and marginalization (Sandercock 2008:222).
In contrast, skateboarders in Belfast are utilizing shared spaces in the city center to subvert
and resist various hegemonic standards of behavior; despite periodic attempts by adult regu-
latory regimes to control, marginalize, or even prohibit their presence in various urban settings.
Rather than engaging in confrontational forms of intra-urban conict, skaters are tacitly ne-
gotiating to expand or overturn spatial boundaries through daily interactions at Custom
House Square, Bridges skate park, and other spots in the city center. However, it should
be noted that such spatial contestations occurred almost exclusively during daylight hours.
None of those interviewed for this study utilized Custom House Square or other spots after
sunset; thus indicating an apparent temporal limitation to their appropriation of urban space.
In the course of this research project, skaters often complained of the exclusionary treatment
they have receivedboth from ofcialdomand other youths known as chavs and spides.
But the stories of skaters often contained a recurring narrative of spatial adaptation within
their urban habitus and resilience to any attempts to discourage or prevent their subcultural-
sporting activities.
All of the skateboarders interviewed in this study indicated some degree of dissatisfaction
with the predominate forms of social stratication in the city. On numerous occasions, skaters
stressed that they reject sectarianism and related stereotypes, even though many admit to
having held prejudicial sentiments in their pre-skateboarding days. In fact, ten respondents
refused to apply the bipolar classication scheme to their own present-day identity, preferring
another (more neutral) category such as Northern Irish.
11
At least eight respondents pre-
ferred atheist or non-religious, apparently indicating their disapproval of sectarianism
in general. By far the most common method observed for identity reclassication among
respondents was through an expressed or tacit identication with skateboarding, which
largely transcends traditional sectarian classication schemes.
In contrast to paramilitary youth organizations (and related spides and chavs), the
subculture of skateboarding is a transnational phenomenon and not place-specic, which
leads to the deconstruction of localized boundaries in Belfast. At the same time, hybridization
occurs as various globalized frames of skateboarding are synthesized with local interests
and concerns. Certainly, an awareness of dichotomous distinctiveness remains among skaters,
but such sectarian categorization becomes secondary or tertiary at best. In this respect, Belfast
skaters are engaged in collective identity work.
12
Having appropriated alternative spatial
domains in which to positively interact, they are able to exist outside the hegemonic purview
of any single groups territorial control or negative inuence, at least temporarily. Personal
contact with the urban-sectarian other is not only permitted in such shared spaces, but also
often encouraged, as subcultural capital is accrued through interpersonal contact.
While a few respondents have directly described skateboarding events as an overtly pur-
posive strategy for improving cross-community relations and combating sectarianism, most
respondents have simply portrayed their everyday skating activities as naturally enhancing
11
There is actually some statistical evidence indicating that a Northern Irish identity is emerging as an alternative
to the traditional Catholic-Irish or Protestant-British classications (Ginty et al. 2007:8).
12
This term is based on Snow and Andersons (1987) concept of identity work, which they use to describe the
range of activities individuals engage in to create, present, and sustain personal identities that are congruent with
and supportive of the self-concept (1348). This paper has applied the concept of identity work to collective beha-
vior, rather than simply individual identity-producing activities; hence the new phrase, collective identity work.
133
DAVID DRISSEL
non-sectarian relationships with young people froma variety of ethno-religious backgrounds.
Taken together, substantial anecdotal evidence has been presented in this paper demonstrating
that sustained socio-spatial interaction between Catholic and Protestant skaters in neutral
urban spaces effectively blurs sectarian boundaries in Belfast, thus enhancing prospects for
peacebuilding between the two communities. Rather than remaining in the xed ghettoized
stasis of Belfasts urban habitus, skateboarders have become de facto agents of progressive
social change, acting to ameliorate and overcome social constraints through the productive
use of space.
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EXTRAURBAN STUDIES
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About the Author
Prof. David Drissel
David Drissel is a professor of social sciences at Iowa Central Community College in Fort
Dodge, Iowa. His undergraduate work included a double major in political science and soci-
ology. His graduate studies focused on comparative politics, international relations, social
change and development, and social movements. Research interests include transnational
social movements and computer-mediated communication, nations/states undergoing polit-
ical/economic transition, youth subcultures and collective identities, the global politics of
Internet governance, juvenile delinquency and subterranean values, diasporic youth and social
networking, and the role of interactive media and popular culture in mobilizing social net-
works. Professor Drissel is a two-time Fulbright Scholar who has studied extensively in
China and the Czech/Slovak Republics, among many other countries. A frequent speaker
and conference participant, he has had several papers published in various academic journals
and compilations. He is an alumnus of the Oxford (University) Roundtable in Great Britain,
137
DAVID DRISSEL
where he presented a paper on Internet governance, which was later published in the Cam-
bridge Review of International Affairs.
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SPACES AND FLOWS: AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF URBAN AND
EXTRAURBAN STUDIES
Editors
David Wilson, College of Education, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA
Bill Cope, College of Education, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA
Mary Kalantzis, College of Education, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA
Please visit the Journal website at http://www.SpacesAndFlows.com/journal/
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