As a co-director of Pushing Boarders, Sander Hölsgens’ influence on bridging academic discussion of skateboarding with grassroots culture and media can’t be understated. The Assistant Professor in Anthropology at Leiden University, Hölsgens has also frequently collaborated with Brian Glenney who authored the article ‘Wicked Smart — What Studies of Skateboarding Found in 2024’. As an addendum to Glenney’s reporting, Hölgens broke down a selection of his favourite studies contained within the article, one from each of its key sections, as a starting point for the wide range of reading material.
Words by Sander Holsgens
Sander Holsgens and Brian Glenney at CityMill Skate during ‘Common Grounds’ at Goldsmiths College, London, 2024. photo: Glenney
‘The Application of Carl Jung’s Thinking to Action Sports: A Skateboarding Case Study.’
Paul O’Connor
Spatial Appropriation and Urban Studies; Senses and Phenomenology
Drawing connections between the skater’s mindset and Swiss psychologist Carl Jung’s archetype of the ‘trickster’, Paul O’Connor’s paper determines that both are devious and triumphant, foolish and ascendent. Who else are tricksters? The Norse God Loki, Puss in Boots, and Puck – a fairy-like creature who helps with chores but quickly turns into a bully once displeased.
Skaters are tricksters of the city, occupying a space between the creative with the weird, the successful and the ever-failing.
But there’s more: skaters (and tricksters) engage in constant individuation, or a therapeutic form of growth.
Paul O’Connor is a wizard. First, he shed a new light on skateboarding through the lens of religion. Then, he shakes us all up by showing that skaters must learn to live with pollution. And, now, he turns to Carl Jung and psychology!?
“Skateboarding is a tool for the ongoing discovery of the self and often a particularly powerful one that enlivens the trickster energy in these people’s lives.”
Read the paper here
‘Ageing in DIY and alternative cultures: Exploring forms of masculinity and adult play in Jackass Forever.’
Willing, I., Bennett, A., Thorpe, H. and Green, B.
Cultural Studies
This paper by OG skate and action sports researchers dives into the weird and ugly world of Jackass. Looking at the 2022 film release of Jackass Forever, it explores what’s up with middle-age men who still make a living from pranks, stunts, and skits.
The findings are unexpected: the hypermasculinity of [Johnny] Knoxville and co. both challenges conventional gender norms as men who express their emotions and care for one another. They also take consent seriously, respecting each other’s boundaries.
But this is not always the case, the authors suggest. At times, once crew members are involved in a joke, they have to ride along. Play can quickly turn into torment. And teasing can become bullying.
“The Jackass crew gives “each other permission to have grey hair, no hair, missing teeth, body rolls and fatness and to be physically exhausted, in pain and even passed out cold.”
Read the paper here
‘Professionalization of action sports: field-and organizational-level professionalization of new Olympic sports.’
Choi, K. H., & Byun, J.
Sport, Fitness and Injury
The Korean skate scene is thriving, from funky local brands to a deep pool of talented skaters. Here, exploration of this community is mediated through social media, in the context of one of the best connected countries worldwide.
The Olympic inclusion of skateboarding (and adjacent practices) in the Olympics enables Korean skaters to acquire legit sponsors: the country’s finally on the radar of international skate brands.
What’s more, the rapid growth of skateboarding correlates with the rise in social media. This comes at a cost: the scene’s social bonds are also mediated – resulting in a decreased face-to-face contact.
“Although action sports communities may enhance social bonds through online media, the increasing use of social media without regular in-person interaction may hinder the development of social bonds within action sports communities.”
Read the abstract here
‘ELIXIR: Extending the lifespan of skateboarding shoes.’
Ricardo Cossu
Design and Technology
As the builds of our skateparks are progressively more sustainable and ethical, so should our attire. Industrial designer Riccardo Cossu created a skate shoe that lasts as part of a thesis project.
The addition of durable patches on the sides is such an elegant idea. They look stunning and are glueable, which means you can easily replace them once they wear out. Plus, there’s a chunky patch for heelflip lovers like myself – an area ofter overlooked by brands who’ve aimed something similar before. Moving the laces to the inside of the shoe will make your inward heels infinitely more sustainable, too.
The promise is that the shoes last a full year, rather than the two/three months we’re used to.
“Most of these shoes are not designed to be repaired. So, there is general discontent from the skaters, who have to buy several pairs of shoes every year in order to skate.”
Read the paper here
‘Decolonial Underground Pedagogy: Unschooling and Subcultural Learning for Peace and Human Rights’
Noah Romero
Fiction, Creative Writing, Art, Popular Media, Podcast
Skaters learn and teach. But there’s more to it than tricks and camaraderie. Noah Romero explores how minority-led skate communities realise transformative education.
The key here is that we need to unschool ourselves from the oppressive modes of education we’re so used to. This includes attending to ancestral knowledge, informal learning, and social justice, or the kind of stuff that skaters are intuitively drawn to.
This book shows what educators can learn from skateboarding, and how skaters can mobilise their intuition to be better, kinder, and more informed people.
“Skateboarding, in short, proved that what colonial schooling taught me about myself was wrong. Skateboarding also helped me to understand the agency of land and the infinite ways I am entangled with the nonhuman world”.
Read the book abstract here
Sander Hölsgens is Assistant Professor in Anthropology at Leiden University, The Netherlands. He is a co-director of Pushing Boarders, a platform and international conference tracing the social impact of skateboarding worldwide. Sander’s writing on skateboarding has appeared in Skateism, Vice, and Jenkem. He is the author of ‘Skateboarding in Seoul: A Sensory Ethnography’ and ‘Skateboarding and the Senses: Skills, Surfaces, and Spaces’.
