Stratford-on_the_edge.pdf (235.29 kB)
On the edge: a tale of skaters and urban governance
The problem of skating has been conflated with a problem with young people in public spaces, reflecting a rise in fear of crime from the mid-twentieth century and referencing more general questions about public space and citizenship. My task in this paper is to highlight some of the tensions between skating and urban governance in Franklin Square, Hobart, the capital city of Tasmania in Australia. This task is indebted to ideas about governance and citizenship advanced by Nikolas Rose; about the proper city as conceived by Michel de Certeau; and about fortress strategie s and species of spaces promulgated by Stephen Flusty. Franklin Square functions in two ways in this work. First, its examination encourages consideration of local cases. Second, it can be deployed as a heuristic device through which to explore the edges of public space and citizenship. The essay is intended to make two contributions to social and cultural geography, one enlarging on some well-rehearsed debates about situated and contested socio-spatial relations in what I hope are innovative ways, the other unsettling particular strategies that place skaters on the edge and yet draw them into particular domains of citizenship via specific practices of urban governance.
History
Publication title
Social and Cultural GeographyVolume
3Article number
2Number
2Pagination
193-206ISSN
Prit 1464-9365 Olie 1470-1197Publication status
- Published
Rights statement
This work stemmed from what was then known as the Small Grants scheme of the Australian Research Council and which included comparative work on Australian capital cities and their local governments responses to skating. Definitive version is available online at http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/14649365.aspRepository Status
- Open