Creative Uses of Urban Space in Italy. Research on Graffiti Writing, Parkour and Skateboarding

A substantial body of research has now emerged on several practices centred around uses of urban space classed as informal, alternative and potentially illegal. However, this research is markedly fragmented. This pathbreaking text develops a comparative analysis that enables a broader, but empirically grounded, reflection on the creative uses of urban space, examining three specific practices: skateboarding, parkour, and graffiti writing. Based on qualitative interviews conducted in Italy with graffiti writers, traceurs and skaters, the book explores how creative uses of urban space shape interpretations of the city and its places, fostering distinctive urban cultures. Author Carlo Genova addresses four key analytical dimensions – the individual journey of the practitioners, their dynamic interaction with the urban environment, collective identities and lifestyles, and relationships with the external context. Providing rich insights for international audiences, the book turns to Italy, where the intersection of historical and industrial past with present strategies of urban regeneration makes its cities privileged vantage points for observing spatial re-use and re-signification, transgression and critique of predominant models, alongside forms of containment, control, institutionalisation and commodification that today characterise skateboarding, parkour and graffiti writing on a global scale. In an era marked by increasing urbanisation, expanding systems of control, and a growing debate on citizen participation in public life, this is an original and necessary contribution to the study of practices rooted in creative uses of urban space. Providing new lenses through which to interpret the complex dynamics of contemporary urban life, this is valuable reading for scholars, urban planners, and policy makers.