Is een ramp een ramp? De dominante constructie van de publieke ruimte door skaters uitgedaagd

Abstract

This article explores a pedagogical perspective on skateboarding. A pedagogical view, in our approach, includes a critical reflection on the effects of (spatial) interventions on the processes of learning and socialisation that already take place in children’s everyday life. In relation to spatial segregation, this implies the question how the spatial exclusion of children into well-defined and well-organised islands impacts upon their individual, social and cultural developmental opportunities. Young peoples own perceptions about these adult constructions of pedagogical spaces are a first step in the construction of such an understanding. To this end, over a period of four months, a participatory observation study was carried out among a group of young skateboarders. Our research shows that skateboarders relate to public space in very diverse ways and, depending on these patterns, attribute greater weight and importance to some criteria over others. In this, we will distinguish between park skaters, street skaters en square skaters. An important implication of this distinction seems that a policy that is mainly focused on creating skate parks at the edge ofthe city does not sufficiently meet the needs of all groups of skateboarders. Moreover, through the implicit acceptance of spatial segregation as a basis for the policy, some groups of skateboarders are being marginalised and excluded rather than supported by these interventions. The question turns up whether every ramp is a disaster.