Skateboarding and Urban Landscapes in Asia

As urban development in Asia has accelerated, cities in the region have become central to skateboarding culture, livelihoods, and consumption. Asia's urban landscapes are desired for their endless supply of 'spots'. Spots are not built for skateboarding; they are accidents of urban planning and commercial activity; glitches in the urban machine. Skateboarders and filmers chase these spots to make skate video, skateboarding's primary cultural artefact. Once captured, skate video circulates rapidly through digital platforms to millions of viewers, enrolling spots from Shenzhen to Ramallah into an alternative cartography of Asia. This book explores this way of desiring and consuming urban Asia, and the implications for relational and comparative hierarchies of urban development.

Duncan McDuie-Ra is professor of Urban Sociology at University of Newcastle, Australia. His most recent sole-authored books are Borderland City in New India (2016), Debating Race in Contemporary India (2015), and Northeast Migrants in Delhi: Race, Refuge and Retail (2012).

Acknowledgements, Chapter 1. Urban Asia: Endless Spots, Escaping the California Gridlock, (Re)Mapping Asia Through Spots, Structure of the Book, Chapter 2. Shredding the Urban Fabric, Spots: Urban Landscapes Below the Knees, Infrastructure's Adjacent Publics, Splicing the Map, Life on Video, Life Online, Conclusion, Chapter 3. Chasing the Concrete Dragon, From Chinese Consumers to Consuming China, Skateboarding at Shenzhen Speed, Endless Spots, New Cartographies, Communist Wonderland, Conclusion, Chapter 4. Spectacle Cities: The Luxury Of Emptiness, Central Asian Spectacles, Emptying Dubai, Dubai Unreal, Spectacle And Its Others, Conclusion, Chapter 5. For the Love of Soviet Planning, Post-Soviet Urban Space From Below (the Knees), Independence Square (Tashkent), Ala-Too Square (Bishkek), The Outer Grid, Haunted Spots, Conclusion, Chapter 6. Skateboarding's New Frontiers, Iran: Revolutionary Modernity, India: Rough Cut Modern, Shredding the Architecture of Occupation, Conclusion, Chapter 7. Conclusion: Another 'Next China', Real-Time Blues, Endless Spots, Endless Search, Bibliography, Skate Videos And Media Files, Published Sources, Index.