Visualising Parkour

Submission note: Submitted in total fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (by research and dissertation in the discipline of Anthropology) for the School of Humanities and Social Sciences College of Art, Social Sciences and Commerce, La Trobe University, Victoria.

This thesis is a visual ethnography of the international parkour subculture. It is based on five years of multi-fielded ethnographic research. Participant observation, interviews, Internet correspondence and secondary materials are drawn on to describe parkour communities across eighteen international fields. Data is drawn from a number of field sites across Australia, America, Canada, Denmark, England, France, The Ukraine and Russia. Utilizing ethnographic description and the work of Bourdieu, as well as a number of interdisciplinary sources, this thesis provides an overview of the similarities and differences in parkour communities and ideologies. It offers a model of common parkour community dynamics and looks at the local, national and international forces that contribute to differences in parkour communities and practice in specific localities. Visual materials like photos and illustrated comics are utilised to deliver ethnographic materials. This thesis contributes to understandings of the development of new international movement subcultures and lifestyle sports, as well as the interaction of local and global forces in the ways that these subcultural practices manifest and develop.