The regulation of skateboarding in the City of Melbourne

This thesis investigates the regulation of skateboarding in the City of Melbourne. It examines skateboarders' use of space, their views of skateboarding, as well as the ways their behaviour in particular spaces is monitored and controlled by city authorities. My literature review identified the existing research on the social organisation and spatial characteristics of skateboarders. Within this research, skateboarding was recognised as a "transgressive" activity that often uses city space in a manner non-compliant with the designed purpose of that space (Borden 1996, 1998a, 1998b, and 1998c). That review also demonstrated the failure of existing research to provide a solid empirical example of the ways in which skateboarders' use of space in "the city" is regulated. This thesis seeks to amend this gap in existing research. The City of Melbourne's Skate Safe policy provides this research with the opportunity to not only investigate a comprehensive policy designed to affect "a reduction of skaters using the streets" (Skate Safe Committee 1998: i), but examine the use of a purpose-built facility in the achievement of this goal. Through focussing on the experiences of skateboarders and those who govern the spaces they use, this thesis is able to outline the logic of the regulation of skateboarding in Melbourne's CBD