Science
Skateboarding in the Olympics: A Collision of Two Incompatible Physical Cultures? Drs Brian Glenney & Paul O'Connor (Pt1) - Meaningful Sport Series
2021-07-23
Lifestyle sports are increasingly included in the Olympic Games. For the first time, skateboarding is included on the Olympic arenas this summer. For some people, this is a natural progression, whereas for others, this represents a collision of two incompatible cultures of sport (if skateboarding can be called such).
What happens, when Olympics (as corporate, nationalistic, spectator-based and points-based) and skateboarding (as skater-owned, globalist, cooperative, and style-centred) meet? Who will be the heroes and the zeroes?
In this fun episode - partly recorded from the beach - Drs Brian Glenney and Paul O'Connor take us on a journey to understand the meanings and values associated with skateboarding, the tensions associated with the inclusion in the Olympics, and ways that skateboarding is associated with religion and questions about a meaningful life.
Dr Brian Glenney is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at Norwich University and Dr Paul O’Connor is lecturer in Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Exeter. Much of our conversation draws on their recent article "When Myths Collide: Skateboarding and Olympics Narratives".
Additional resources for further inspiration that were mentioned in the conversation include:
... And you can jump directly to Part 2 here!
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