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Paper Short Abstract:

Considering the contracultural aspect of parkour and its strong relation with the urban context, this paper reflects on how parkour practitioners from Vigo -Galicia- politicise and negotiate the uses of the urban public space and on their frictions with the institutionalisation process of the sport.

Paper Abstract:

This paper will explore the perception of traceurs -parkour practitioners- in the city of Vigo -Galicia- about the institutionalisation of their sport from a gender perspective. Specifically, about the recent formation of a parkour school and a specific park in the city. Although a priori it may seem that these measures would be positive for all traceurs, the issue is more complex. Parkour is a contemporary sport that is often practised informally -outside clubs or schools, without formal regulation- in urban public space. Some traceurs consider that "taking", "improvising", "reinventing" the city and its uses is part of the sport's identity and so they do not support the construction of specific parks or schools. For this sector, institutionalisation implies a domestication, displacement and privatisation of the sport. This is related to a countercultural character and even to the understanding of this sport as a practice of resistance. Nevertheless, we are in a context in which sport is masculinized, the public space continues to be exclusive and discriminatory, and women tend to be socialised in "passivity" when it comes to political intervention. From this perspective, it is possible that women traceurs do support the institutionalisation of parkour, as specific parks or schools offer them security. From an ethnographic and gender perspective, this paper will approach the micropolitics of traceurs, reflecting on how they politicise their sporting practice, on their role as negotiators of the uses of urban public space and, ultimately, on the resulting frictions between them and the formal institutions.