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Skateboarding Spaces of Youth in Belfast: NegotiatingBoundaries, Transforming IdentitiesDavid Drissel, Iowa Central Community College, USA

Abstract: The city of Belfast, Northern Ireland, has experienced a major political transformation andurban revitalization since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in April 1998. Though the incidenceof sectarian violence has declined dramatically since the end of the “Troubles” (i.e., Northern Ireland’sdecades-long political conflict), most residential neighborhoods in Belfast remain heavily segregatedbetween Protestants and Roman Catholics. Moreover, sporadic episodes of rioting and property de-struction by sectarian youths continue to plague the city, particularly during the annual summer“marching season.” As a relatively new phenomenon in Belfast, skateboarding is especially prevalentin the mostly non-sectarian spaces of the city center. Protestant and Catholic young people often skatetogether in the same vicinity, thus interacting with the urban “other.” The influence of skateboardingon the collective identities and ethno-religious perceptions of Belfast youth are investigated in thispaper, with an emphasis on the role of subcultural spaces in bridging the sectarian divide. Everydayacts of resistance to traditional sectarian norms and values, occurring within the spaces of skateboard-ing, are described and analyzed. The paper is based primarily on ethnographic observations and semi-structured interviews with skateboarding teens and young adults, conducted by the author in Belfastduring July/August 2010.

Keywords: Belfast, Skateboarding, Youth Subcultures, Urban Space, Sectarianism, Ethno-religiousIdentities, Collective Identities, Northern Ireland, Everyday Resistance, Extreme Sports

Introduction

THE POPULAR IMAGE of skateboarding is one of defiant, nonconforming youthsengaged in a highly individualized and potentially dangerous recreational activity.In virtually every major city of the world, skateboarders (known simply as “skaters”)can be seen riding the ledges, curbs, ramps, railings, handrails, steps, benches,

planters, and plazas of the metropolitan spatial-milieu. Lacking the legitimacy of traditional(“mainstream”) sports, the “alternative sports subculture” of skateboarding has gained amodicum of official acceptance only within the past few decades (Donnelly 2006:221). Mostnotably, the United States Postal Service unveiled an “extreme sports” stamp collectionfeaturing skateboarding at the ESPN Summer X Games in San Francisco in 1999. Prior tothat time, government officials had routinely referred to skateboarding as a “delinquent” and“underground” phenomenon; thus, “many in the extreme sports community viewed this na-tional recognition as a welcome form of social acceptance” (Rundquist 2007:179).Even so, numerous local officials and commentators continue to depict skateboarding in

a very negative light, pointing a finger of blame at skaters for such alleged infractions asdamaging private and public property, creating noise pollution, and endangering themselvesand others on the streets and sidewalks of urban centers. “Skateboarders themselves did littleto help this negative image as the subculture developed in the 1980s and the dynamics of

Spaces!and!Flows:!An!International!"#$%&'(!#)!Urban!and!ExtraUrban!Studies!Volume!2,!Issue!4,!2013,!http://spacesandflows.com/journal/,!ISSN!2154-8676!©!Common!Ground,!David!Drissel,!All!Rights!Reserved,!Permissions:cg-support@commongroundpublishing.com

their identity became framed by aggressive attitudes, notions of indifference and rebellion,spatially and bodily destruction, and competition,” Steyn (2004:12) explains. In contrast toprofessional skateboarding events and official skate parks, “street skating” by youthful am-ateurs in non-designated urban areas violates the “government sanctioned frame of spaceand imagination” (Rundquist 2007:180). Characterized as a “transgressive activity that chal-lenges the regulations imposed on urban space” (Chiu 2009:26), skateboarding is “constantlyrepressed and legislated against” in cites around the world (Borden 2003:1).This article explores the alternative youth subculture of skateboarding in Belfast, Northern

Ireland,1 which was engulfed by internecine violence for decades due to an ideologicallydriven dispute that fragmented the city along ethno-religious lines. Like the rest of NorthernIreland, Belfast was plagued by a de facto civil war known as “the Troubles” from the late1960s to the late 1990s, which pit Roman Catholic Irish nationalists against Protestant Britishunionists. During the Troubles, Belfast experienced numerous deadly terrorist attacks againstcivilians by paramilitary organizations and a prolonged military intervention by armedBritish troops. The Troubles effectively divided Belfast into majority-Protestant andminority-Catholic garrison-style neighborhoods or “communities.” But since the signing of the Belfast(“Good Friday”) Agreement in April 1998, Northern Ireland has undergone a dramatic post-conflict political transformation, resulting in a significant diminution of sectarian violencein Belfast and other cities and towns.Nonetheless, most residential neighborhoods, schools, community centers, and sports

teams in Belfast remain heavily segregated between Protestants and Catholics (Shirlow2008:75). In fact, Belfast continues to be the most ethno-religiously divided city in NorthernIreland (Mitchell 2008:142), with residential working class districts muchmore homogenoustoday in sectarian terms than theywere in the early 1960s (Calame and Charlesworth 2009:73).Protectivewalls (“peacelines”), murals, graffiti, flags, and curbsidemarkings sharply delineateneighborhood boundaries. Moreover, sporadic episodes of sectarian rioting, assaults, andproperty destruction primarily perpetrated by young people continue to plague the city,particularly in interface zones positioned on the borders of sectarian-residential neighborhoods(Russell 2004:25). But in contrast to most traditional sports in Belfast, the alternative sportof skateboarding has become increasingly prevalent in the social spaces and places of therelatively non-sectarian, mostly non-residential, city center (Leonard and McKnight 2007).Protestant and Catholic youths often skate peacefully together in the same social spaces,thus interacting with the vilified urban “other” on relatively neutral ground (Leonard 2010:336).This ethnographic paper investigates the influence of skateboarding on the collective

identities and sectarian perceptions of Belfast youth, with an emphasis on the role of thisunderground sports-subculture in bridging the sectarian divide. Everyday acts of resistanceto traditional-sectarian norms and values, occurring within the subcultural spaces of skate-boarding, are described and analyzed. The presence of shared spaces is emphasized in par-ticular, based on the hypothesis that sustained socio-spatial interaction between Catholicand Protestant youths effectively blurs sectarian boundaries and diminishes the salience oftraditional identification categories. The paper postulates that skateboarding in particularhelps to bring young people of diverse backgrounds together within the relatively non-sec-

1 Belfast has a population of 277,391 people, with a total of 579,554 in the metro area, according to 2001 censusfigures.

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tarian spaces of central Belfast, thereby challenging the residential status quo and strength-ening the potential for peace building between Roman Catholics and Protestants throughoutthe city.Research questions addressed in this paper are as follows: What influence, if any, has

skateboarding had on the sectarian identities and oppositional consciousness of young peoplein Belfast? How has the socio-spatial milieu of Belfast been affected by skateboarding?Whydo certain youths become active participants in skateboarding while others react with distainand hostility towards the subculture?What has been the role of officialdom in the contestationof Belfast’s skateboarding spaces, and how have skaters sought to resist spatial hegemonies?How does the intersection of religion, ethnicity, gender, and social class influence the skate-boarding subculture? What are the prospects for youth-based peacebuilding initiatives thatactively involve skaters in post-conflict Belfast?The paper first examines many of the major theories of urban space, exploring the effects

of spatial contestations and social interactions on the collective identities of urban youthliving in divided cities such as Belfast. Next, a brief historical overview of the political con-flict and related changes in social space that have occurred in Belfast over the last severaldecades is presented. Subsequently, various theories of youth subcultures and the influenceof skateboarding on Belfast’s post-conflict spatial environment are discussed. At this point,the author’s experiences in exploringBelfast’s socio-spatial field are described, which includesselected excerpts from recent interviews with skateboarders in Belfast. The paper concludeswith a discussion of the main findings of the project, including an evaluation of selectedcomments made by respondents. Various reconfigurations of urban space and related changesin the collective identities of Belfast teenagers and young adults are also analyzed.

Space in Divided CitiesVarious cities around the world have experienced extended periods of internal spatial divisionand group-based competition, as governments and non-state actors systematically have se-gregated entire neighborhoods that are situated within a particular urban field. In recentdecades, cities as diverse and far-flung as Berlin, Germany; Nicosia, Cyprus; Beirut, Lebanon;Mostar, Bosnia-Herzegovina; Jerusalem, Israel/Palestine; Johannesburg, South Africa; andBaghdad, Iraq; have been either officially or unofficially partitioned on the basis of suchfactors as political ideology, race, ethnicity, religion, or some combination thereof. Severalsuch cities–including Belfast–have been directly bifurcated by massive walled structuresthat rigidly demarcated space for years, physically fortifying particular urban zones fromintrusion by other municipal actors.In almost all cases, divided cities are “the direct consequence of the division of nations

and partitions of countries” (Kliot andMansfeld 1999:170), which usually have been accom-panied by civil wars, insurgencies, or other forms of armed conflict. Even after the civil warsand other conflicts have officially ended and some or all of the internal city walls have col-lapsed, residents of divided cities continue to “struggle with losses and missed opportunitiesthat are beyond compensation” (Calame and Charlesworth 2009:1). Often complicatingurban reconstruction and peacebuilding in such post-conflict cities are widespread prejudicialsentiments, de facto segregation, social exclusion, dichotomous social institutions, and relat-ively low-intensity inter-communal violence.

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Within divided cities, urban space is both visibly and invisibly partitioned, with frequentstruggles waged between adversarial groups over segmented urban assets and territory, in-cluding various neighborhoods (Sandercock 2008:222). Group members continually markspatial boundaries and view any alterations in existing borders as “politically divisive acts”(Shirlow 2006:103). But the roles and activities of urban residents are somewhat orderedand constrained by their distinctive habitus, i.e., “a system of durable, transposable disposi-tions, that are structured, inculcated and generative” (Bourdieu 1977:53). People occupyinga similar structural position in social space are provided by their habitus with a long-lasting(though not permanent) set of principles, representations, sensibilities, tastes, perceptions,experiences, understandings, beliefs, lifestyles, and patterns of behavior; which exist incontradistinction to other socio-spatial schema. Simply put, the habitus is “a sense of one’sand others’ place and role in the world of one’s lived environment” (Hillier and Rooksby2008:21).Within any given urban field, subordinate groups will seek to overturn the spatial order,

while dominant groups will actively defend their structural position with whatever powerresources best exemplify their habitus. “As a space of forces or determinations, every fieldis inhabited by tensions and contradictions which are at the origin (basis) of conflicts,”Bourdieu (2008) asserts, “this means that it is simultaneously a field of struggles or compet-itions which generate change” (47). Aside from overtly confrontational forms of intra-urbanconflict, members of various social groups are involved in tacit negotiations to expand ordelimit spatial boundaries and related collective identities. “Central to these negotiations isthe creation, transgression and sometimes evasion of boundaries. Such boundaries not onlymark where it is possible to go, but also who it is possible to be,” McGrellis (2005b:517)contends.In this respect, collective identity formation is an active, creative course of action that is

heavily influenced by spatial configurations and contestations. Though the larger socialstructure affects the “objective possibilities” for interacting in particular kinds of socialspaces and networks, individual actors tend to organize their multiple identities in a “hierarchyof salience” reflecting their habitus and role-related choices (Stryker 1987:91). Moreover,collective identities are directly related to the formation of specific group boundaries and anoppositional consciousness designed to articulate grievances and resist domination. Long-standing differences between adversarial groups are crucial in this regard, as “the positioningof a meaningful past” infuses group consciousness with “a narrative of continuity” that ef-fectively links past grievances to present-day circumstances (Neill 2001:5). Such narrativestend to exaggerate differences between groups, while minimizing differences within groups.Particularly when compared to the in-group, other urban actors are depicted as monolithicallyimpure, deviant, and dangerous. This is especially the case if a substantial degree of socialdistance exists between groups, such as when neighborhoods are segregated or normal non-adversarial inter-group relations are extremely limited or nonexistent (Sibley 1995).According to the contact hypothesis, prejudice tends to flourish in such an insulated urban

atmosphere, particularly when positive interactions between members of different ethnic orreligious groups are apparently lacking (Allport 1954). Studies have found that prejudicecan be reduced through intergroup contact in egalitarian social settings when members ofdifferent groups share a common goal and are interdependent in achieving that goal. Butcontact between different groups in social settings can actually increase levels of prejudice

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under certain circumstances, especially when such contact involves persons of unequal statusin competition with one another (Pettigrew and Tropp 2006).Several empirical studies (e.g., Hendry et al. 1993, Pearce 1996) have revealed that urban

youth in particular tend to have strong emotional attachments to local spaces and places,which serve as a major source of collective identity, group cohesion, and intergroup conflict.The neighborhood is especially important as an identity marker for youth, as localized spatialorientations tend to depict non-residents (and new residents) as suspicious or unwelcomeoutsiders. In many cases, various forms of harassment and even violence are directed at non-residents who accidentally or purposively venture into a particular neighborhood. Such ter-ritoriality can be “best understood as a spatial strategy to effect, influence, or control resourcesand people by controlling area” (Sack as cited in Hesse et al. 1992:172). Numerous demo-graphic factors have been found to fuel spatial territoriality, including differences in status,social class, race, ethnicity, religion, and local street-gang affiliations; which tend to bestrongest among young men living in low-income locales (Cohen 1988). Thus, identifyingwith one’s neighborhood can become “a form of defensive street masculinity,” especiallywhen youths perceive of themselves as threatened or under assault by spatial outsiders ordominant majority groups (Watt and Stenson 1998:253).In turn, teenagers are frequently depicted as “a potential threat to public order” (Baum-

garnter 1988, Cahill 1990), finding themselves subjected to police harassment, public andprivate surveillance, and temporal and spatial curfews in public spaces (Valentine 1996).Indeed, urban “revitalization” schemes tend to involve the de facto privatization of publicspace; i.e., unofficially excluding undesirable others–including loitering teens in generalandminority youths in particular-from redeveloped locales (Berman 1986, Fyfe and Bannister1996). “The space of the street” is frequently the only truly autonomous space that youngpeople construct and inhabit without constant adult supervision. Thus, “hanging around, andlarking about, on the streets, in parks and in shopping malls, is one form of youth resistance(conscious and unconscious) to adult power” (Valentine et al. 1998:7). To paraphrase PaulRoutledge (as cited in McGrellis 2005a:58), such “terrains of resistance” frequently posemajor challenges to the socio-spatial status quo. The street is “the stage of performance” formany young people, who often negotiate and adopt subcultural/countercultural identitieswithin the public domain that are “contradictory and oppositional to the dominant culture(messy, dirty, loud, smoking, sexual)” (Malone 2002:163). From this vantage point, spaceis filled not only with borders, but also borderlands–alternative spatial domains that tendto blur and conflate hegemonic distinctions (Tajbakhsh 2000:164).

Belfast’s Spatial SchismLike the rest of Northern Ireland, Belfast has experienced dramatic socio-spatial fissuresand reconfigurations over the years. Colonized by English and Scottish Protestant settlersbeginning in the eleventh century, Northern Ireland eventually became a majority-ProtestantBritish enclave within a predominately Roman Catholic island. Several observers have de-picted the subjugation of Ireland by the United Kingdom as a form of racism with religionserving as the primary signifier. Indeed, the British/Protestant conquest of Ireland “wasjustified and advanced by a racial ideology that suppressed the indigenous population onaccount of their supposed moral, intellectual, and other failings” (McVeigh and Rolston2007:3). Racialized and stigmatized by a hegemonic power, Irish Catholics were often treated

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as second-class citizens at best and subhuman at worst. “As a racial indicator, religion inIreland acquired the rigidity which skin color has had elsewhere,” McVeigh and Rolston(2007) observe. “Catholics were deemed to be inherently lesser–lazy, unintelligent, violentand rebellious–while the colonizer bore none of these characteristics” (4).Following a series of popular uprisings by Irish nationalists in the early 20th century, the

mostly Catholic twenty-six counties of southern Ireland gained their independence from theU.K. The Irish Free State (and eventually the Republic of Ireland) was established withDublin as its capital. During the same period, Northern Ireland (i.e., Ireland’s northeasternsix counties, also known as Ulster) was officially separated from the rest of the island, be-coming an integral part of the U.K. At the time of partition in 1921, Catholics composed amajority of Ireland’s overall population, though they represented a distinct ethno-religiousminority in the Protestant-dominated North. This is still true according to the latest censusfigures from 2001, with approximately 53.1% of Northern Ireland’s population identifyingas Protestant and 43.8% as Roman Catholic. However, it is important to note that the Cath-olic minority in Northern Ireland has been growing faster than the Protestant population inrecent years, which will likely lead to a demographic transformation of the province withinthe next few decades (Moriarty 2012). Belfast, which serves as Northern Ireland’s provincialcapital, is more evenly divided than the rest of the province, with 48.6% identifying asProtestant, 47.2% as Catholic, and 4.2% indicating that they are either non-religious or affil-iated with a non-Christian faith. Significantly, Belfast is a “young city” with 19.5% of thepopulation under 16 years of age (Belfast City Council 2010).The conflict in Northern Ireland has been fueled not so much by religious intolerance per

se, but by political disputes between two adversarial ethno-national movements that use re-ligion as a boundary marker (Shirlow and Murtagh 2006:15). In this regard, the two major“sides” are the pro-British unionists and the pro-Irish nationalists, who traditionally haveheld antithetical positions on the appropriate constitutional status of Northern Ireland. Onthe one hand, unionists (mainly Protestants) want to retain the British-dominated “union”of Northern Ireland with the U.K. On the other hand, nationalists (mainly Catholics) seekto reunify the North with the rest of the island. One of the original sources of Irish nationalistdissatisfaction with the British/Protestant control of the North had been the existence ofdiscriminatory practices in employment, housing, social services, law enforcement, and in-sufficient representation in provincial and local government bodies (Ginty et al. 2007).Over the years, the Irish nationalist movement grew in strength and became increasingly

confrontational. By the late 1960s, nationalists had adopted many of the tactics of theAmerican civil rights movement such as engaging in peaceful protest, while demandingequal rights for Catholics. The start of the Troubles is traced back to a bombing at the Uni-onist headquarters in Belfast in February 1966. Two days later, a reprisal bombing occurredat a nearby Catholic school, with major sectarian riots ensuing soon thereafter. British troops,deployed to the province ostensibly as peacekeepers, became embroiled in the conflict, attimes angering both sides (Calame and Charlesworth 2009).The often-violent crackdown byBritish troops and Protestant-dominated police departments

led to fierce reprisals by militant Irish nationalists known as “republicans.” As the mostdogmatic wing of the Irish nationalist movement, republicans increasingly embraced terrorist-style tactics in an attempt to expel British troops. Meanwhile, the extreme “loyalist” wingof the unionist movement adopted similar tactics. During the Troubles, Northern Irelandwitnessed a dramatic escalation of sectarian violence orchestrated largely by paramilitary

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groups such as the Provisional Irish Republican Army and the Irish National LiberationArmy (on the nationalist/republican side) and the Ulster Defense Association and the UlsterFreedom Fighters (on the unionist/loyalist side).Belfast in particular became a very violent place during the Troubles, with more than

1,500 people killed2 and tens of thousands injured within the city alone (Shirlow 2006:100).Paramilitary groups rigidly delimited space throughout Belfast during this period, as neigh-borhoods became increasingly segregated on the basis of ethnocentric creeds. Competingideological discourses justifying territorial control became paramount, with boundary mark-ers such asmurals, flags, and curb paintings becoming commonplace. Paramilitaries portrayedthemselves as the guardians of particular neighborhoods, effectively demonizing their ethno-sectarian rivals. Inter-group violence was “morally justified” in this respect by framing theother as monolithically malevolent and threatening. Indeed, paramilitary groups often exag-gerated the alleged politico-religious homogeneity of segregated places in order to operation-alize “the difference between republican/nationalist and unionist/loyalist spaces” (Shirlowand Murtagh 2006:19).There was an apparent hardening of ethno-national identities during the 1970s and eighties,

as a “British” identity for Protestants and an “Irish” one for Catholics became progressivelymore popular (Muldoon et al. 2007:90). In effect, “troubled” Belfast became almost com-pletely bifurcated into two dissimilar politico-spatial realms. Virtually every public accom-modation was segregated to some extent–from schools and recreation centers to hotels andpubs. In political and popular jargon, two distinct “communities” existed, though in realitythey were reified social constructs symbolizing divergent collective identity projects. Mostobviously, numerous so-called “defensive walls” or “peace lines” were constructed withinvarious Belfast areas, beginning in the 1970s. These concrete interface structures were de-signed to serve as buffer zones, situated between violence-prone sectarian neighborhoods.Twenty-feet high in some places, such walls were erected “to keep people in the same streetfrom firebombing and murdering each other” (Ignatieff 1993:215–216). Paradoxically, suchwalls sharply reduced mobility and everyday contact between Catholics and Protestants,thus generating evenmore suspicion, avoidance, and hostility (Shirlow andMurtagh 2006:57).

Post-troubles Space in BelfastProgress was gradually made in the political sphere during the 1990s, beginning with inter-mittent paramilitary ceasefires and culminating in the multiparty “Good Friday” peaceagreement of April 1998. This agreement dramatically modified the political status quo inBelfast and throughout Northern Ireland. Ratified by a popular referendum in May 1998,the agreement included a revamped Northern Ireland legislature with proportional power-sharing guarantees for both major sects,3 a new pan-Irish (North-South) council, a British-Irish council, and other moderate reforms (Ginty et al. 2007:7). Since that time, terrorismand organized paramilitary activity have largely dissipated and the sectarian civil war haseffectively ended.

2 Throughout of all of Northern Ireland, approximately 3,500 lives were lost as a result of the major sectarian violenceduring the Troubles (McGrellis 2005a:53).3 The new culturally inclusive Northern Ireland Assembly, located at Stormont in Belfast, was officially inauguratedin 1999, though it has been temporarily suspended several times. However, a major compromise agreement betweenthe major parties was instituted in May 2007.

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However, Belfast continues to be highly segregated, with around 80 percent of residentsliving in neighborhoods that are populated by more than 60 percent of the same religioussect (Shirlow 2006:102). More specifically, approximately two-thirds of Catholics (67.3percent) and almost three-quarters of Protestants (73 percent) live in neighborhoods in whichat least 81 percent of the residents are from the same ethno-sectarian background (Shirlow2008:78). Despite the official decommissioning of weapons by the Provisional IRA4 andthe Loyalist Volunteer Force, paramilitary groups continue to wield substantial power, par-ticularly in low-income areas. Violent conflicts between rival paramilitary factions (ofteninvolved in organized crime) have continued unabated, though mostly at a relatively lowlevel of intensity. Such altercations are particularly common in interface zones borderingpredominantly Protestant and Catholic areas. Sectarian rioting in segregated neighborhoods,targeted killings,5 assaults, and vandalism perpetrated upon traditional symbols and institutionsof rival factions, have largely replaced the terrorist campaigns of the Troubles (Shirlow andMurtagh 2006:3).One of the largest and longest peace lines, constructed during the height of the Troubles

in the 1970s, continues to divide the Shankill (Protestant) community from the contiguousFalls Road (Catholic) neighborhood. At least twenty-seven major barricades are positionedbetween Catholic and Protestant residential neighborhoods in Belfast, while “none have yetbeen dismantled” (Calame and Charlesworth 2009:5). In fact, nine new walls have beenconstructed andmost of the existing walls have been heightened or extended since the officialend of the Troubles in 1998 (Shirlow 2008:79). Marking space discursively with such wallsserves only to generate greater social distance between the two ethno-religious communities.“Such barriers often give the city’s interfaces a distinctive physical appearance, which isreinforced by the frequent presence of bricked up, or derelict buildings, wasteland, sectarianor paramilitary graffiti, and vandalism” (Russell 2004:22).Sectarian-style political murals, including some with vividly violent imagery, continue

to be on display in various ethno-religious enclaves, thus signaling the “territorial demarca-tion” of space in the city. The “marking of space” by muralists is designed to “remind theviewer of ‘oppression’ and the perpetual need to celebrate examples of armed and civil res-istance” (Shirlow 2008:75). Such murals, which first appeared in Belfast in the early 20th

century, tend to be painted on the exterior gable walls of terrace-row houses. As Coulter(1999) states, “Wall murals represent an important device through which republicans andloyalists seek to advance their own particular reading of the conflict in Northern Ireland”(202). While walking through various sectarian neighborhoods, graffiti featuring ethno-slurswere observed by this researcher, including threatening messages directed at “Huns” (Prot-estants) and “Taigs” (Catholics). Such murals, graffiti, and other territorial markers reinforcea climate of fear, prejudice, and separation, among the populace.Moreover, Protestants and Catholics have maintained their own separate cultural infra-

structures since the Good Friday agreement was implemented (Nik Craith 2003). Each “side”has retained their own highly segregated schools, businesses, leisure activities, newspapers,etc. Approximately 95 percent of Northern Ireland’s youth currently attend religiously se-gregated schools, according to recent data (Leonard 2010:333). Belfast only has a small

4 Other breakaway factions of the IRA have refused to decommission their weapons.5 According to recent figures, 167 deaths have occurred due to sectarian violence in Northern Ireland since 1995.There have been over 2,500 paramilitary style attacks during the same time period (McGrellis 2005a:53).

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handful of integrated schools, most of which are in relatively affluent areas–away fromworking class neighborhoods. Both major population groups also continue to propagatenegative stereotypes about the ethno-sectarian other, including a distinct version of historythat “paints the out-group as untrustworthy” (Ginty et al. 2007:7).Although there is substantially more mixing of people from different demographic back-

grounds in Belfast today than in recent memory, “residents still perform their social lifealong largely sectarian lines” (Shirlow 2006:102). Recent surveys reveal that 82 percent ofBelfast residents would not enter a neighborhood dominated by the other sect at night, while28 percent would not travel through such neighborhoods during daytime hours. Youngpeople, in particular, are much more likely than older folks to fear the other ethno-religiouscommunity, according to recent surveys. Belfast residents ages 16 to 24 were the most likelyof all age cohort groups to avoid facilities in areas dominated by the other sect (Shirlow2008:82).Even most sports teams in Belfast remain highly segregated and contentious, with certain

sports connoting an Irish-Catholic identity (e.g., Gaelic football, hurling), while other sportsare de facto markers of British-Protestantism (e.g., rugby, cricket, hockey). Soccer teamscan be found on both sides of the sectarian divide, though Protestants and Catholics almostalways favor different professional teams. Such teams tend to employ sectarian symbolism,thereby providing a powerful conduit for youthful expressions of ethnocentric beliefs andemotions (Bairner 2008, Coulter 1999). Consequently, a young person’s “sporting preference”is often utilized as an indirect signifier for determining an ethno-religious identity, whichcan lead to violent altercations. Sports fans and players at times are victimized in Belfastbecause “their chosen sport is placed within a particular cultural tradition” (Sugden andBairner 1993:16).Most troubling, “recreational rioting” has become “the extracurricular activity of choice

for youths” living in the relatively impoverished ethno-religious enclaves of Belfast. Thoughalcohol, drugs, and boredom often fuel such riots, the underlying motivation is mainly sec-tarian. During the summer months of the annual “marching season” in particular, riots occurin an apparent response to spatial intrusions by the ethno-religious “other.”6 Such riots involveyoung people gathered in large crowds at neighborhood interfaces throwing rocks, makeshiftpipe bombs, and spiteful slurs at one another (Porter 2010). However, there are also variousnon-sectarian reasons for such periodic episodes of collective violence, including commonperceptions among youths that rioting is a traditional rite of passage. Rioting is also describedby participants as a collective form of “rebellion, contestation, and the testing of authority,whether that of the police, local paramilitary actors or other young people living in the area”(Mitchell and Kelly 2010:16).Nonetheless, there are some positive signs of change, even in heavily sectarian neighbor-

hoods. For instance, a growing number of sectarian organizations have participated in “re-imaging” projects, designed to transform murals into relatively non-violent depictions,compared to past works (Mitchell and Kelly 2010:23). In the Shankhill Protestant-unionistenclave, two former paramilitary militiamen of the Ulster Volunteer Force conducted a tour

6 Protestant fraternal organizations have numerous marches in the summer months to commemorate various historicevents. Most notably, the Orange Order marches annually on July 12 to celebrate the victory of English forces, ledbyWilliam of Orange, over the Catholic King James II at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690 (Calame and Charlesworth2009:65).

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for this author that focused on sectarian murals in the neighborhood. Formerly convictedand imprisoned for alleged terrorist activities in the 1990s, these two men are now in theirlate thirties and working with youth at a local fitness club. They are also directly involvedin revamping some of the most violence-laden sectarian murals in the Shankhill, thus seekingto make such visual depictions less offensive to Irish Catholics. In fact, they pointed to amural that is currently being repainted for this purpose. Many of the young people theymentor are involved in this project, which is supported with funds from the Belfast municipalgovernment. “We’re trying to help young people build up their self-esteem, while gettingthem involved in projects that are community-based,” one of the men explains.In addition, a series of relatively new, non-sectarianmurals were observed, which stretched

for over a mile on the main interface wall separating the Shankhill from the Falls Road area.Known as “the Meeting of Styles,” this project has involved young people from both sidesof the sectarian divide in Belfast, as well as participants from around the world. Inclusiveslogans on the wall include, “We are all connected” and “Free us all from the prison ofmistrust, misunderstanding, and misdeeds.”Significantly, the role of young people in the peacebuilding process is often overlooked

or minimized in discussions about post-conflict Belfast and the rest of Northern Ireland. In-deed, the vast majority of international media coverage tends to focus on the “big picture”of armed violence, competing political interests, and compromises involving the partisanrepresentatives of the two main ethno-sectarian communities. Whenever young people arementioned in such accounts they are almost always portrayed as tragic “victims” of sectarianattacks on the one hand, or the violent perpetrators of internecine conflict on the other, butrarely as potential agents of positive social change. For this reason, it is important to explorethe everyday lives and attitudes of Belfast youth, particularly with regard to their feelingsand concerns about the ethno-sectarian other. Observing daily interactions between Protestantand Catholic youths in public places can be especially valuable in this regard. As McEvoy(2000) contends, “It is the currently disenfranchised young (those under 18) who will determ-ine the success or failure of any peace process in the long term” (87–88).

The Subculture of SkateboardingOne way in which collective identities can be potentially transformed in Belfast and otherurban environments is through the creation of informal youth subcultures, i.e., groups ofteenagers and young adults sharing certain common cultural features, yet appearing to havevalues, norms, beliefs, symbols, and attitudes that differ substantially from the larger culture(Bennett 2001). Described as “meaning systems, modes of expression or lifestyles developedby groups in subordinate structural positions,” youth subcultures exist in a state of systemiccontradiction with the parent culture (Brake 1985:8). Though subcultural “membership” ismostly informal and ephemeral, adherents tend to express their collective identities by dis-playing a relatively distinct fashion style, engaging in non-standard leisure activities, parti-cipating in underground music scenes, and utilizing esoteric slang.The origins of the global skateboarding subculture are often traced back to surfers in

southern California during the 1950s and sixties, who opted to engage in “sidewalk surfing”periodically, particularly when the oceanic tides were too flat for performing their preferred

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dude-sport.7 Fully crystallizing as its own distinct subculture in the late 1970s, skateboardingbecame popular due in part to a drought in southern California that provided newly availablespaces for skating in the form of empty backyard swimming pools. Skaters soon were tres-passing into suburban pools with reckless abandon, effectively transforming them into “ter-rains of pleasure and contestation” (Vivoni 2009:135). The growing popularity of skateboard-ing prompted private entrepreneurs to unveil large for-profit skate parks across the UnitedStates. But by the early 1980s, most such parks had gone bankrupt due to a significant declinein membership coupled with skyrocketing insurance premiums (Borden 2003).Consequently, street skateboarding emerged in the early 1980s, which directly challenged

the spatial hegemony of plutocratic elites. Skaters, acting effectively as spatial-scouts, dis-covered new “spots” in which to perform their “tricks”–whether in the grimy underbelly ofbridges and underpasses, or on the exigent terrain of public squares, downtown financialdistricts, and college campuses. The image of skateboarding youth with shaggy hair andbaggy pants, appropriating space in the parking lot of the local strip mall, became bothiconic and iconoclastic. Skateboarding was soon depicted as a deviant, alternative lifestylethat includes various adrenaline-fueled, oppositional-spatial practices. Hence, skateboardingwas framed as a “cultural site of social resistance that challenges dominant norms and values”(Vivonia 2009:131).In effect, skaters tacitly “colonize” and appropriate the concrete-asphalt urban habitat in

unconventional ways, often finding themselves in direct conflict with the official custodiansof hegemonic-consumerist spaces (Borden 2003:53). In particular, business owners, policeofficers, and municipal officials often accuse skaters of trespassing, loitering, vandalism,and other delinquent and criminal behaviors.While authority figures tend to view skateboard-ing primarily as an anarchistic, deviant disruption of social order and commerce, skatersgenerally depict their daily spatial performances as a playful–though intense–form of recre-ation, an expression of artistic style, and a competitive test of skill, technique, and creativity.As Weyland (2002) remarks, “Skateboarding is misunderstood because it is outside the nor-mal scheme of things. Skating isn’t nice. It’s ugly and beautiful at the same time, a physicalactivity that isn’t really a sport but is definitely a way of life” (7).As a youth subculture, skateboarding involves meaningful social interactions with like-

minded peers that share similar body movements, argot, and values. “Skateboarders createtheir own subculture; a social world in which self-identifying values and appearances confrontconventional codes of behavior,” Borden (2003:137) observes. The values of skateboardinginclude risk-taking, adventurism, hedonism, irreverence, fatalism, and a rejection of adulthoodand its traditional familial conventions. As Weyland (2002) remarks, “The essence of skate-boarding is an urge for speed and a desire to manipulate the board and the body in a releaseof energy that combines skill with voluntary induced danger. Skaters simultaneously drawon elements of the death wish, thrill seeking and meditation, using gravity as a fulcrum forpropulsion while defying it to soar into the air” (6).Paradoxically, skateboarding has blossomed over the years into a multi-million dollar in-

dustry that includes specialized equipment, clothing, magazines, films, and websites. Oftenhyped as an “extreme” sport, skateboarding features “global corporate media images, mer-chandise, and spectacular mega events” (Vivoni 2009:130). As a result of globalization and

7 The original skateboards, known as “scooter skates,” reportedly first appeared in California in the 1930s–1950s,though these were “makeshift contraptions constructed by children” (Borden 2003:13).

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related corporate-market penetration strategies, the international popularity of skateboardinghas increased dramatically, particularly among youngmiddle-classmales. “Whilst homemadeand second-hand accessories are available, the reality is that skateboarders need typically tobe frommiddle and upper-middle class backgrounds to afford the equipment and accessories,”Steyn (2004:15) states.

Research MethodologyThis paper is based primarily on a micro-ethnographic study of Belfast young people, whichincludes semi-structured, open-ended interviews with forty-two skateboarders (ages 13 to31) that were encountered in various public settings in July and August 2010. In contrast tomacro-ethnography, micro-ethnography focuses mainly on face-to-face interactions and “onparticular incisions at particular points in the larger setting, group, or institution” (Berg2009:193). Utilizing a micro-ethnographic methodology can facilitate the implementationof a participatory interview approach that is focused on examining subcultural variationswithin a specific urban habitus. Modeled directly after Fine’s (2003) “peopled ethnography,”this research project endeavored to provide “primacy to the observation of interactions butalways grasping these within structural conditions” (46). Such an approach addresses centraltheoretical issues that are based directly on data retrieved from the subjects under study.This research project remained focused on examining the everyday lives of young peoplewho have been socialized in Belfast’s polarized socio-cultural environment. But rather thansimply asking respondents about their ethno-religious identities, this study sought to under-stand the everyday interactions of actors operating within the dominant urban habitus.In order to solicit respondents, this researcher approached skaters and their friends “hanging

out” in various unofficial skateboarding spots in the city, which are located primarily in townsquares and plazas. In many of the places in which respondents were identified, crowds hadformed that contained temporary clusters of young people. The vast majority of respondentswere in groups interacting with friends and acquaintances, often relaxing briefly betweenfrenetic bouts of skating. Such “prosaic gatherings” of youth “develop when members arefree from work, school, or similar obligations” (McPhail 1994:37). Effectively engaged in“subjective soaking,” this writer abandoned “the idea of absolute objectivity or scientificneutrality” (Ellen 1984:77) and became immersed in the local skateboarding scene. Gainingthe trust of an older skater, Mike, helped immensely in this regard. Mike invited this writerto attend a ska-punk show at a local live-music venue, which had the effect of establishingmutual bonds of trust. Perceived by Mike and other skaters to be a subcultural “insider” inthe transnational punk and ska scenes, this researcher gained greater access to potentialskater-respondents. Sustained contact with Mike triggered the snowball effect, since hisvisible support in skateboarding spaces was very helpful in identifying prospective respond-ents for interviews.Interview questions dealt primarily with skaters’ descriptions of their collective identity

and related spatial interactions in Belfast–including the relative importance of religion, eth-nicity, and political ideology in shaping their identity and how they perceive skaters fromthe other major ethno-religious community. Respondents were asked about the relative im-portance (or lack thereof) of their ethno-national identity and how they perceived membersof the other major ethno-religious community. In addition, respondents were encouraged tocite anymajor challenges or types of opposition that they have faced as skaters in Belfast–both

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from officialdom and other youths. Relevant demographic information was solicited fromall respondents (e.g., age, neighborhood residence, school, occupation), and a series of follow-up questions were designed to encourage the free expression of individual feelings andconcerns. Consequently, several subjects shared stories about how they first encounteredskateboarding and the influence of the subculture on their identity.Respondents often seemed surprised by this researcher’s line of questioning, particularly

when asked about their ethno-religious identities and related issues. It is certainly possiblethat several subjects decided simply to say what they thought this researcher wanted to hear.Based on brief observations of skaters and conversations with various young people duringan earlier trip to Belfast in 2006,8 this writer had assumed that skating tends to bring youthstogether from both sides of the sectarian divide. Thus, the expectation in the current studywas that most young people skating together in the city center would not be overtly sectarian.However, to avoid the potential problem of the Hawthorne Effect, several follow-up questionsthat probed into the subjects’ backgroundwere asked, which provided respondents additionalopportunities to be frank and honest. Several of the same young people also were observedat various other skating spots, which provided additional opportunities to assess the veracityof their statements in slightly different spatial environments.During the course of the interviews, extensive field notes were taken, but on a few occasions

this researcher simply jotted down responses immediately after an interview (or set of inter-views) had ended. More often than not, conversations with young people for this study werenot full-fledged structured interviews. In fact, the average length of time for an interviewwas approximately fifteen minutes. However, this approach successfully elicited commentsfrom respondents who might otherwise have refused a request for a formal interview. Therelatively fluid, participatory interviewing style seemed to put respondents at ease, particularlygiven the often hectic and noisy atmosphere in which the research was conducted. In examin-ing the data, statistical methodology was not utilized, but rather a purely qualitative approachwas adopted in which selected comments from respondents would inform the analysis. Inorder to insure confidentiality, this paper uses pseudonyms for all respondents.

Belfast’s Skateboarding SubcultureIn terms of their religious-sectarian origins, respondents among Belfast skateboarders inter-viewed for this research project included eighteen Protestants, twenty-two Catholics, and atleast two from interfaith families. The social class backgrounds of Belfast skaters in thedataset are quite mixed, with approximately nineteen respondents having presumablymiddleclass backgrounds (based on neighborhood origins), while twenty-three subjects hail fromworking class and lower class neighborhoods. Interestingly, all of the skaters observed inthis study are youngmales between the ages of 12 and 31. Among the youngmen interviewed,the median age is 17. This writer was informed that there are at least a few female skatersin Belfast, but did not personally witness any in his two-week visit in July and August 2010.Problematically, the social construction of skateboarding as a “masculine” subcultural en-deavor is bolstered by multinational commercialized representations. As Borden (2003)notes, “Skateboarding remains a predominately male activity and most skate publicationsusually refer to skaters using the male terms of he, him, his, etc.” (144).

8 For more on this writer’s preliminary findings about youth people and skateboarders in Belfast, see Drissel (2007).

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However, several young women were observed interacting with skaters on a regular basiswithin the same social spaces. For instance, 13-year old Orlaigh explained that she enjoyshanging out at skateboarding spots, even though she does not skate. As a Catholic girl froma sectarian neighborhood in North Belfast, she has personally experienced violence on sev-eral occasions. She notes that her school is located in a nearby Protestant area, which leadsto constant stones being hurled at Catholic youths as they walk to and from school. On oneoccasion, she was hit in the head and seriously injured. But in the skateboarding spots of thecity center, she finds refuge from such altercations. “You don’t even know who’s Catholicor Protestant here,” she says cheerfully.As is the case in Belfast, skaters around the world often claim to resist the corporate

commodification of their lifestyle, thereby constructing a collective identity that expressesa transnational ethos of rebellion and authenticity. As Steyn (2004) observes, “Skateboarderstend to view themselves as innovators and creators of a new movement, despite the wealthof contradictory imagery they surround themselves with” (14). Thornton (1997) has coinedthe term “subcultural capital” to refer to the interactive process of achieving in-groupprestige,9 noting that such capital “confers status on its owner in the eyes of the relevantbeholder” (202). Accruing subcultural capital involves spurning the “mainstream” symbol-ically, while expressing personal tastes or attributes that are deemed to be “authentic” byone’s subcultural peers (Weinzierl and Muggleton 2003).Consequently, one of the apparent motives for identifying with the subculture of skate-

boarding is the potential to receive status-based acclaim from like-minded others. For instance,many skaters observed in Belfast displayed “cool” graphics and rebellious slogans on theirskateboards (e.g., “Free Palestine,” “Build Ramps, Not Bombs”), which are highly prizedby their subcultural cohorts, thus accruing subcultural capital. In particular, skaters effectively“earned” subcultural capital by performing skating maneuvers that were deemed to be innov-ative or creative by fellow skaters. “You’re respected more in the skateboarding communityif you can do better tricks,” one 17-year old Belfast skater said.While skateboarding is “part of a global network of approximately like-minded practition-

ers,” it is also “highly localized in its specific manifestations” (Borden 2003:2). In interviewswith Belfast skaters, it was found that several respondents have embraced the practices andpersonalities of the original American skateboarding archetype, while at the same time incor-porating local concerns into their subcultural identity. For instance, three respondents men-tioned the influence of the celebrated American skateboarding pioneer, Tony Hawks–nick-named “the Birdman.” Jason, a 17-year-old skater with a Protestant background, recalls thathe first started skating with a neighborhood friend after being exposed to a Hawks videogame.Soon thereafter, he decided to seek out new skateboarding-cohorts in the city center. “Skatinginfluences the way you dress and stuff, including the type of shoes you wear, and longerhair too,” he admits. Cian, 23-years-old, started skating when he was fifteen, after being in-fluenced heavily by MTV’s skating sensation, Ryan Sheckler. “He’s the ‘teen idol of skat-ing’…Ryan helped to revamp the negative, anti-social image of skateboarding,” Cian claims.One common theme that emerged amongst respondents is the comparison between

mainstream sports and skateboarding in Belfast. Dennis, 17-years-old and Protestant, contendsthat mainstream British sports such as rugby and hockey are too militaristic for his tastes.

9 Thornton draws heavily on the work of Pierre Bourdieu’s related concept of “symbolic capital” (Weinzierl andMuggleton 2003:9).

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“The government uses sport to encourage patriotism and loyalty,” he states. “I don’t like theway such sports are advertised. But skateboarding is different.” Sixteen-year old Sean, whogrew up in a Catholic neighborhood, recounts how his views about skateboarding evolved.“I was into hurling and Gaelic football when I was younger. I used to be narrow-minded andthought that skaters were shit,” he states. “But when I turned fourteen, I started to change.I met Owen–who’s a skater. I thought it was a good sport, so I took it up.”Several respondents observed that the Glasgow Rangers are the preferred professional

soccer team for Protestants in Belfast, while Catholic residents heavily favor the GlasgowCeltics. As one 15-year-old skater from North Belfast claimed, fighting over sports is thenorm for young people. “In my Catholic neighborhood, kids have grown up not to like theRangers. If you live in my neighborhood, you favor the Celtics; but if you are walking acrosstown with a Celtics cap, you would get beat up.” Sixteen-year-old Jordan, raised in a Prot-estant neighborhood, makes a similar observation, comparing soccer to skateboarding.“Skating is not like football. There isn’t any hate between us. We’re just one team.”Many skaters complained about harassment from other young people that they derisively

call “spides” and “chavs.” The term “spide” originally referred to violence-prone Belfastteens (especially young males) that joined paramilitary organizations or related youth-basedsupport groups during the Troubles. Some of these groups were known as “tartan gangs,”so named because of the traditional Celtic plaid (“tartan”) clothing worn bymembers. Tartanyouths were labeled in popular discourse as “spides”–which is short for the spider-like designof their plaid attire. In current Belfast argot, “spides” more specifically refer to youngCatholicworking-class toughs, while “chavs” are the British equivalent.10 “They are scumbagswho live in sectarian neighborhoods,” one 18-year-old Catholic skater remarks. Brennan, a14-year old Protestant skater agrees, noting, “If someone is skating and having fun, spidesor chavs will mess with you. It makes them feel harder to mess with us, but they’re reallyassholes.”

Skateboarding Spaces of BelfastSkateboarders in Belfast, like their subcultural cohorts in other cities around the world, ne-gotiate and appropriate the spatial terrain of the city, designating unofficial “spots” forskateboarding. In the case of Belfast, the vast majority of such spots are located in the citycenter, which appears to be relatively non-threatening. In sharp contrast to segregated resid-ential neighborhoods, this writer could not find a single example of sectarian murals orgraffiti within the city center. Rather, graffiti pieces in the city center are mostly hip-hopinfluenced with typical tag names written on walls in elaborate neon spray-can colors. Verylittle of the city center’s graffiti is overtly political, though there are a few examples of wallart emphasizing “peace” and one calling for “class war.” It seems as though the city centeris relatively neutral in political orientation, compared to many other parts of town that con-tinue to be deeply politicized and operating under a streetwise code of sectarian particularismand macho bravado.

10 Throughout the United Kingdom, the term “chav” generally refers to working class youths that are fashion-conscious, often combining expensive sportswear, designer clothing, and conspicuous jewelry (often fake) withstreet-savvy attire and argot. They are frequently stereotyped as being disrespectful of authority, ethnocentric, lazy,violent, and delinquent (Jones 2011).

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However, Belfast skaters frequently encounter concerted opposition from city officials,police, and security guards that are intent on “protecting” the revitalized spaces of capitalist-consumption in the city center from “delinquent” intruders. When this writer first visitedBelfast in 2006, he witnessed numerous skaters performing tricks on the grandiose courtyardsof the refurbished “waterfront,” in close proximity to the Hilton Hotel and other architecturalsymbols of opulence. Upon returning to Belfast in 2010, this researcher discovered thatskaters effectively had been banished from the main waterfront area, as a consequence ofpolice harassment and the installation of anti-skateboarding bumps. Skaters had relocatedto nearby Custom House Square; but even this “new spot” was threatened by officialdom.“Security guards tried to kick us out of our ‘new spot’ at Custom House, but this is the lastplace that we have left, so we refused to leave,” one young skater explains. “We used tohave the waterfront, so this is our last stand.” Another skater complains that skateboarding“gets a lot of bad press” and is often compared unfairly to vandalism.Surrounding Custom House Square are some of Belfast’s oldest landmarks, including the

Albert Clock, the Northern Bank, and Scottish Amicable. In observing the square on numerousoccasions, dozens of young men were seen skateboarding, in-line skating, and biking, whileothers were observed interacting with friends and acquaintances. Mostly teenagers wereseen in the vicinity–including a significant number of girls on the sidelines. Many of theskaters were clad in t-shirts emblazoned with American or British rock and rap artists. Afew youths were dressed in gothic black, while others sported spiked hair and punk attireand/or skater-style sports clothing. Civility seemed to predominate on the courtyard, as nu-merous clusters of youths engaged in fluid and intermittent conversations with various people.Paraphrasing Elijah Anderson (2004), the entire courtyard appeared to be covered metaphor-ically by a “cosmopolitan canopy,” in which friendly banter predominated. Notably, neithera single fight nor verbal altercation at the square was observed in the course of this researchproject.During visits to Custom House Square and other skateboarding spots in the city, several

of the youths conceded to this researcher that an awareness of sectarian identity continuesto exist among skaters, but such feelings are presumed to be largely irrelevant in the sharedspaces of skateboarding. As Luke, 16-years old and Protestant, explains, “Religion doesn’tcome up at the square. Its not about religion, it’s about doing tricks and having fun.” Sixteenyear-old Danny–raised a Catholic–exclaims, “In skateboarding, nobody cares if you’re aCatholic or Protestant. It’s like a big family.” Another young skater simply states, “Skatingis our religion–even though we’re from different sides of the community.” Connor, 17-years-old and Catholic, agrees, noting, “The good thing about skating is that we come from differentareas of Belfast. I have loads of Protestant friends from skating. Everyone comes here(Custom House) to skate and hang about.”Several respondents admit to having had a sectarian identity at some point in their lives,

though many claim to have distanced themselves from that identity or even renounced it al-together. For instance, Jude, 17-years-old and raised a Catholic, claims that “religion is noteven a factor” in his present-day identity. “My identity is built with myself. Your culture,your family, your interests–that’s what builds up your identity.” Interestingly, some of thestrongest anti-sectarian views were expressed by skaters who were raised in mixed-sectarianhouseholds. “None of that shit matters,” recalls Mike–the progeny of an interfaith marriage.At 31-years-old, Mike is the oldest Belfast skater interviewed for this study. “Religioussectarianism is all too insular, unlike skateboarding–which is a true community,” he states.

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“In certain parts of Belfast, hate is bred into kids and growing worse with each generation.It’s a problem with ignorance and a lack of true spirituality.” Nineteen-year old Damien,who also was raised by parents of different sects (i.e., a Catholic mother and Protestantfather), expresses similar sentiments, as follows:

I dunno how to describemy identity. I’m just me I guess. Religion wasn’t ever importantto me. I didn’t really know about the whole Catholic/Protestant thing until I was about13 and never really cared. It’s not really a general thing. It’s just you get chavs who arejust all about their religion. No one else I know seems to care about it. Skateboardinghas just changed the way I view things in general. I look at stuff a lot different thesedays because of it and it’s given me a sense of freedom for meeting new people. I’venever once been asked or heard any one ask another skater what religion they are. Itjust isn’t important to us.

Nonetheless, several skaters readily acknowledge their ethnic/nationality “roots,” thoughthey tend to deemphasize such considerations compared to their identificationwith the skate-boarding scene. “I would say I’m an Irish non-observant Catholic,” 16-year-old Eoghanstates. “But all of my friends are from different places in Belfast. We just want to have funskating.” Similarly, John–a young Protestant–refers to himself as “Northern Irish” but refusesto embrace the unionist label of “British.” “One of my best friends is Catholic; we metthrough skating,” he states proudly. Tom, 14-years old, was raised in a Catholic Irish-nation-alist environment but became a self-professed “liberal atheist” soon after he started skate-boarding. “I’m not a republican or anything. I feel that we should get on with our lives.Though I’m proud of my Irish roots, we should never shove our beliefs in other people’sfaces.” Niall is fifteen and was raised in a sectarian household with family members that areavid IRA supporters; but he claims that skating has transformed his beliefs from sectarianto culturally inclusive. As he states, “We don’t come here to fight, we come to skate. I enjoyskateboarding–all of my mates are here.”A few young people readily acknowledged that they are actively involved in peacebuilding

initiatives that feature skateboarding. At the time of this research project in 2010, the Belfastcity government had recently approved the construction of a new skate park. Ciaran, 23-years old at the time of the interview, recalls how he was raised in a Roman Catholic neigh-bourhood; but in recent years has been actively involved in organizing cross-communityevents for skateboarders and lobbying municipal authorities for the new park. Unlike mostother respondents, Ciaran grew up in a suburban village, Dunmurry, which is officially locatedwithin the Greater Belfast conurbation and has an almost equal number of Catholics andProtestants. Unlike many urban areas of Belfast, Dunmurry does not have any type of walledstructures dividing Catholic from Protestant areas. However, spatial divisions exist informallywith flags, murals, and other symbols designating exclusionary sectarian spaces. Ciaran recallsthat he did not fully understand sectarianism in his childhood, only encountering intoleranceovertly for the first time in his adolescence. He clarifies that he adopted various prejudicialsentiments in reaction to Protestant sectarianism for a time during his teenage years. However,he underwent a gradual positive transformation, due in part to his involvement in the skate-boarding subculture. As he explains:

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Dunmurry was mainly split in half. One end is Catholic, the other Protestant. If youwent too far into the village you would have that sense of all eyes watching you. Myneighborhood was mainly Catholic. Back when I was a child (late 1980s early 90s) andeven before that, most people from either religious backgrounds mainly lived in an areawith similar religious background. It was the belief that you were “safe” within yourown community of similar religious background. Being young, I really didn’t understandthe feeling of prejudice. The feeling was that if you were Catholic, you mainly onlycommunicated with other Catholics. As I got older I began to realize this (prejudicial)feeling. Today that prejudice has disappeared a lot from me. I have friends with bothcommunities and not once have we ever had grudges to do with our religious back-grounds. If anything we joke about it!

As a skateboarding-activist committed to bringing down sectarian barriers in Belfast andthe surrounding metropolitan area, Ciaran has been integrally involved in helping to designthe new skateboarding park and designating its name. As he explains, “We decided to callthe park ‘Bridges Urban Skate Park’ because not only is it under a bridge but it portrays theidea of communities coming together throughout Northern Ireland.” Ciaran is passionateabout such bridge-building projects, noting proudly that his “skateboarding team” oftenmentors younger skaters in sectarian neighborhoods and uses their group website to spreadthe word about upcoming skateboarding activities. “We use this website to not only promotethe park, but also to do cross-community events with Catholic and Protestant youth groups,”he states. In a recent e-mail to this writer, Ciaran revealed that the new Bridges skate parkopened to the public in June 2011. Ciaran claims that the park thus far has been instrumentalin improving cross-community relations in Belfast and the surrounding metropolitan area.As he states:

The new Bridges skate park has been fantastic. It has exceeded all expectations. Theenvironment is friendly and always open to new users. It has helped me rekindle mypassion for skateboarding and also helped a lot of the older generation get back intothe sport. The new park has helped cross-community relations. Bridges in Belfast is ina neutral area. This helps create a safe haven for anyone that wants to learn the sport.Religion has never really been an issue within skateboarding and I cannot think of oneincident that it has been a problem.

ConclusionFor decades, Belfast residents existed in politically bounded sectarian-space that definedand delimited their collective identity choices. Residents experienced a growing hardeningof dichotomous identities (British-Protestant unionist or Irish-Catholic nationalist) as polit-ical tensions escalated during the Troubles. Eventually, Northern Ireland achieved somesemblance of political cohesiveness resulting from the “Good Friday” accords, though thesocio-cultural sources of division within Belfast have continued to linger. Much of Belfastremains heavily segregated along ethno-religious lines, especially in working-class residentialareas. The city contains a dual cultural infrastructure–including separate educational institu-tions and sports teams, thereby further bifurcating the spatial milieu of youth. Despite theirphysical proximity within the same city, Protestant and Catholic youths often experience

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markedly different forms of socialization. Such a “spatial ordering of the city” is prone tohegemonic discourses of otherness and marginalization (Sandercock 2008:222).In contrast, skateboarders in Belfast are utilizing shared spaces in the city center to subvert

and resist various hegemonic standards of behavior; despite periodic attempts by adult regu-latory regimes to control, marginalize, or even prohibit their presence in various urban settings.Rather than engaging in confrontational forms of intra-urban conflict, skaters are tacitly ne-gotiating to expand or overturn spatial boundaries through daily interactions at CustomHouse Square, Bridges skate park, and other “spots” in the city center. However, it shouldbe noted that such spatial contestations occurred almost exclusively during daylight hours.None of those interviewed for this study utilized Custom House Square or other spots aftersunset; thus indicating an apparent temporal limitation to their appropriation of urban space.In the course of this research project, skaters often complained of the exclusionary treatmentthey have received–both from officialdom and other youths known as “chavs” and “spides.”But the stories of skaters often contained a recurring narrative of spatial adaptation withintheir urban habitus and resilience to any attempts to discourage or prevent their subcultural-sporting activities.All of the skateboarders interviewed in this study indicated some degree of dissatisfaction

with the predominate forms of social stratification in the city. On numerous occasions, skatersstressed that they reject sectarianism and related stereotypes, even though many admit tohaving held prejudicial sentiments in their pre-skateboarding days. In fact, ten respondentsrefused to apply the bipolar classification scheme to their own present-day identity, preferringanother (more neutral) category such as “Northern Irish.”11 At least eight respondents pre-ferred “atheist” or “non-religious,” apparently indicating their disapproval of sectarianismin general. By far the most common method observed for identity reclassification amongrespondents was through an expressed or tacit identification with skateboarding, whichlargely transcends traditional sectarian classification schemes.In contrast to paramilitary youth organizations (and related “spides” and “chavs”), the

subculture of skateboarding is a transnational phenomenon and not place-specific, whichleads to the deconstruction of localized boundaries in Belfast. At the same time, hybridizationoccurs as various globalized frames of skateboarding are synthesized with local interestsand concerns. Certainly, an awareness of dichotomous distinctiveness remains among skaters,but such sectarian categorization becomes secondary or tertiary at best. In this respect, Belfastskaters are engaged in collective identity work.12 Having appropriated alternative spatialdomains in which to positively interact, they are able to exist outside the hegemonic purviewof any single group’s territorial control or negative influence, at least temporarily. Personalcontact with the urban-sectarian other is not only permitted in such shared spaces, but alsooften encouraged, as subcultural capital is accrued through interpersonal contact.While a few respondents have directly described skateboarding events as an overtly pur-

posive strategy for improving cross-community relations and combating sectarianism, mostrespondents have simply portrayed their everyday skating activities as naturally enhancing

11 There is actually some statistical evidence indicating that a “Northern Irish” identity is emerging as an alternativeto the traditional Catholic-Irish or Protestant-British classifications (Ginty et al. 2007:8).12 This term is based on Snow and Anderson’s (1987) concept of “identity work,” which they use to describe “therange of activities individuals engage in to create, present, and sustain personal identities that are congruent withand supportive of the self-concept” (1348). This paper has applied the concept of identity work to collective beha-vior, rather than simply individual identity-producing activities; hence the new phrase, collective identity work.

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non-sectarian relationships with young people from a variety of ethno-religious backgrounds.Taken together, substantial anecdotal evidence has been presented in this paper demonstratingthat sustained socio-spatial interaction between Catholic and Protestant skaters in neutralurban spaces effectively blurs sectarian boundaries in Belfast, thus enhancing prospects forpeacebuilding between the two communities. Rather than remaining in the fixed ghettoizedstasis of Belfast’s urban habitus, skateboarders have become de facto agents of progressivesocial change, acting to ameliorate and overcome social constraints through the productiveuse of space.

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About the AuthorProf. David DrisselDavid Drissel is a professor of social sciences at Iowa Central Community College in FortDodge, Iowa. His undergraduate work included a double major in political science and soci-ology. His graduate studies focused on comparative politics, international relations, socialchange and development, and social movements. Research interests include transnationalsocial movements and computer-mediated communication, nations/states undergoing polit-ical/economic transition, youth subcultures and collective identities, the global politics ofInternet governance, juvenile delinquency and subterranean values, diasporic youth and socialnetworking, and the role of interactive media and popular culture in mobilizing social net-works. Professor Drissel is a two-time Fulbright Scholar who has studied extensively inChina and the Czech/Slovak Republics, among many other countries. A frequent speakerand conference participant, he has had several papers published in various academic journalsand compilations. He is an alumnus of the Oxford (University) Roundtable in Great Britain,

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where he presented a paper on Internet governance, which was later published in the Cam-bridge Review of International Affairs.

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Editors David Wilson, College of Education, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA Bill Cope, College of Education, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA Mary Kalantzis, College of Education, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA

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