What Skateboarding Says About the Politics of Urban Space
Duncan McDuie-Ra, Author, Insurgent Play
12-Aug-25 15:00

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If you’ve walked around your city, chances are you may have seen people skateboarding off the rails outside a shopping mall or doing parkour on a dingy rooftop of an abandoned building, or perhaps even kicking around a ball in an alleyway turned into a makeshift futsal court.
But what do these activities tell us about urban culture? Do they reveal anything about politics? And is there anything urban planners can learn from them?
In this episode, we’re joined by Duncan McDuie-Ra, whose latest book, Insurgent Play: Social Worlds of Urban Disruption, explores exactly those questions and more. Prof Duncan is also the Head of Monash University Malaysia’s School of Arts & Social Sciences.
To purchase his book, visit: anthempress.com/books/insurgent-play-pb
Image Credit: Anthem Press / Monash University
Produced by: Dashran Yohan
Presented by: Dashran Yohan
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Tags: insurgent play, hostile architecture, urban density, urban disruption, the bigger picture, beyond the ballot box, urban studies, class struggle, skateboarding,