The institutionalization of parkour: blurring the boundaries of tight and loose spaces

Abstract

ABSTRACT During its twenty-year history as a globally popular lifestyle sport, parkour has undergone institutionalization, professionalization and commercialization. In this article, the analysis of these changes is based on interviews conducted with Finnish traceurs who have long experience in parkour as practitioners and coaches, with some of them having parkour as their main occupation. Earlier research with the same participants provides the background to the subject and offers an overview of the development of the Finnish parkour scene. Special attention is paid to the ways in which indoor facilities and parkour parks have changed traceurs’ relationships with urban public spaces. These changes are analysed by applying the concepts of tight and loose spaces. The study shows how some participants strongly connected parkour to its original roots, whereas others emphasized its physical elements and were not that concerned about the sportization of the discipline. Due to the increased popularity of indoor facilities and parkour parks, parkour’s visibility in public spaces had diminished, which had decreased encounters between traceurs and other users of the same space and thus decreased parkour’s potential to loosen urban spaces – to make them more tolerant towards different ways of being.