Description
Book SynopsisTrade Review"Combining lucid prose and informed by critical scholarship, Kidder elucidates the meanings and cultures of a twenty-first century sport from the streets of the megacity to the hand-held social media device. Timely and sound,
Parkour and the City has much to offer to the community." -- Paul Gilchrist * coeditor of The Politics of Sport *
"In this fascinating book, Kidder reveals the complex ways in which parkour participants engage with risk and perform hegemonic forms of sporting masculinity.
Parkour and the City reveals many of the paradoxes of informal lifestyle sporting activities and the ways they resonate with postmodern culture." -- Belinda Wheaton * School of Human Development and Movement Studies, University of Waikato *
"Kidder’s descriptive and engaging text touches deftly on a number of timely and relevant areas of interest for scholars in many fields and many places." * International Review for the Sociology of Sport *
"Kidder walks the reader through his conclusions and makes compelling arguments, and overall, the book is well written and clearly organized. The most interesting chapter discusses traceurs’ hedgework, rituals of risk, and symbolic practices of safety. It is easily accessible for readers who want to learn more about the sport of parkour. In reading Kidder’s book, one is instantly inserted into a parkour jam but with a sociological lens." * Gender & Society *
"The book is well written, and I recommend it to all scholars and students who are interested in lifestyle sport, urban sociology or to those who are looking for a good example of how sport (as well as all human activity) is significant beyond itself." * idrottsforum.org *
"This is a well-researched, well-written, and ultimately intriguing study that will position Kidder at the forefront of scholarship on this cultural form for some time to come." * American Journal of Sociology *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments
Introduction: Thinking Sociologically about Parkour
1 Developing the Discipline and Creating a Sport
2 New Prisms of the Possible
3 Young Men in the City
4 Hedging Their Bets
Conclusions: Appropriating the City
Appendix A: Brief Note on Data and Method
Appendix B: On the Parkour Terminology Used in This Book
Notes
Bibliography
Index
