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Video Journeys

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Skateboarding and Religion

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Abstract

In this chapter O’Connor addresses how religion is performed in the video media products of the skateboard industry. Focusing on two skateboard videos produced 30 years apart, The Search for Animal Chin (1986) and We Are Blood (2016), he shows how a religious message is contained in both videos in the tropes of communitas, transcendence, and ritual quest. The three tropes underline the argument that as a lifestyle religion, skateboard media is a central locus of community and a repository of shared cultural knowledge and values. Videos are presented as a further iteration of how skateboarding and religion intersect, and while religious symbols may not be overtly on display or evoked, it is argued that skateboarding is performed as religion in this media.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Lingnan University, Tuen Mun, Hong Kong

    Paul O’Connor

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  1. Paul O’Connor
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Correspondence to Paul O’Connor .

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O’Connor, P. (2020). Video Journeys. In: Skateboarding and Religion. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24857-4_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24857-4_6

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-24856-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-24857-4

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

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