Abstract
O’Connor orients readers to the topic of skateboarding culture and the numerous ways it can be recognised as a religious expression. We learn that this is a provocative approach which argues that skateboarding has become a meaningful and sometimes central pastime by which individuals organise and structure their lives. To many individuals skateboarding provides a physical and spiritual outlet, ritual process, text, and community. This is unpacked alongside an explanation of what skateboarding has evolved into over the last 60 years. O’Connor foregrounds the scope of his study, describing his methodology, with an overview of the remaining chapters. With reference to the sociology of religion and the study of lifestyle sports, he suggests that in some contexts skateboarding operates as a lifestyle religion.
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O’Connor, P. (2020). Introduction. In: Skateboarding and Religion. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24857-4_1
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