in Everyday Life (1959) examined the social self and interaction. This classic ... interaction is as much to do with presenting oneself to others, about giving.
‘Flying-through-the-air Magic’: Skateboarders, Fashion and Social Identity.
Janine Hunter
Abstract Understanding fashion better adds to our understanding of the complex relationship between the individual and society. Fashion encapsulates many of the tensions characteristic of modern life experience, and, in particular, highlights the role of consumerism in that experience. At an individual level, fashion offers social obedience alongside individual differentiation (Miles, 1998). An individual can get from fashion what he or she pleases - a sense of individuality alongside a feeling of belonging - while from a broader perspective fashion reflects the underlying workings of a mobile society. In this respect, the needs of the individual and of society mesh together in fashion. This article reports on research that explores the relationship between self, fashion and identity in one small corner of the modern world, that of the skateboarder.
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Setting the scene Imagine: you are walking into the city centre on a sunny Saturday afternoon when you come across a large rectangular pedestrian area, surrounded by roads heaving with traffic. Looking around, you see that half of the square is open space and the other consists of a variety of features. To the side of the area you notice a statue with steps leading down from it, which seems ideal as a meeting place. Within this section of the area there are a collection of fountains all of which are enclosed by slightly raised ledges to make four larger pools of water. You note that the white noise from the fountains hides the sound of the passing cars and, as you move closer, you also observe some much higher raised marble platforms, which you understand to be seating. You take a pew. You notice a group of people. Some are sitting around the statue talking. Others are standing around, flipping their skateboards up. After a few moments of watching you notice that their conversation dwindles and all but one get up and grab their skateboards. They move off in their own directions, the one remaining appearing to be fixing the wheels of a skateboard. Recognise the scenario? Take a closer look. At times the skaters will huddle together to discuss something that seems to be of the utmost importance. They appear to be talking technique and strategy as they describe, through their body movements, the manoeuvres they are presently working on with their skateboard. You can spot different degrees of ability and notice that some of the younger boys don’t have the same air of grace and confidence as some of the older boys. They look on, in what could be awe or envy, at the older boys moving quite elegantly on the deck. Members of the group are dressed in a very relaxed and informal style. Baggy jeans, T-shirts, maybe a hooded top and a key chain hanging from the side of a leg. Some have a favourite band or rock legend printed on their T-shirt, whilst others have a logo. You notice some of the skaters wearing cut off shorts or rolled up jeans to three-quarter length, showing off their socks and 2
trainers. As much as each skater is dressed individually, it all seems to be part of the same style: these people dress alike. Or do they? This research reported here answers this question, and the answer is not as simple as one might suppose. The dress style of street skateboarders is, in fact, the result of complex social processes that articulate different aspects of the skateboarding scene, including age, length of time skating, style of skating, skating heroes, and music. These subtleties, which are lost to the outsider, are intrinsic to the world of the skateboarder and are communicated through their style of dress. The seemingly simple act of dressing the body represents something much more powerful to the skater. What this article aims to do is to examine how complex the fashion world of the skater is, and to place this within a wider theoretical context of social identity. Although what draws skaters into their collective world is the act of skating, dress or ‘uniform’ symbolises this and is a visual sign of this particular collectivity. This article details a small-scale, qualitative investigation into fashion and social identity amongst skateboarders in Cardiff’s city centre. The examination of literature concerning the nature of fashion as a social and individual fulfilment provides a background context for the study. The choice of methods will also be reviewed followed by the substantial findings of the research, and an extended discussion and analysis of these. This analysis is summarised and areas of further possible enquiry are identified in a concluding, final section. Fashion, the self and social identity This section draws on three theorists whose work dates to the beginning, middle and close of the twentieth century: Georg Simmel, Erving Goffman, and Richard Jenkins, respectively. Each is concerned with the individual (self), society and identity, and the relationship between these. An understanding of this relationship is fundamental to the sociological project and has been the subject of considerable, empirical and theoretical work. The focus will then move, to concentrate on work on culture and cultural studies, 3
youth and subculture. A brief review of the history of cultural studies is essential to place specific texts into context. In the following section I will discuss work on consumerism and its relation to youth, before progressing to more specific writings on subcultures. Simmel was not a systematic social theorist (Smith, 1980). The following comes from his celebrated essay Fashion, which allows for an examination of the individual, yet simultaneously social, function of fashion: 'The whole history of society is reflected in the striking conflicts, the compromises, slowly won and quickly lost, between socialistic adaptation to society and individual departure from its demands… Each in its sphere attempts to combine the interest in duration, unity, and similarity with that in change, specialisation, and peculiarity' (Simmel [1904] 1971: 294-5).
This quote captures a fundamental characteristic of human society and of the individuals comprising it. Simmel sees society in the same way as he does fashion: in a dualistic manner. He points to two antagonistic principles that are manifest within the human condition: the need for unity and the need for isolation. The social embodiments of such contrasts can be illustrated through the examination of fashion, for if fashion is to become established there are two tendencies that must exist, namely; the need for union and the need for isolation. As Simmel has written on imitation, '[It] requires no great personal and creative application, but is displayed easily and smoothly, because its content is a given quantity' (Simmel [1904] 1971: 295).
In addition to the above, Simmel argues that imitation allows for the satisfaction of the need not to stand alone in action: there is transference of not only the demand for creative activity, but also the responsibility for the action, from the self to another. Thus, in appearance the individual looks to be a member of the group, without putting forth a conscious effort. Simmel argues that where imitation is a productive factor, it represents one of the fundamental dispositions of the human character. Imitation is productive where the human character is content with similarity, moving from the specific to the general. In contrast to this, imitation has a negative essence where
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individual difference, independence and the alleviation of generality are sought. Fashion, Simmel argues, is the imitation of a given example, which furnishes a general condition, while simultaneously satisfying the need for differentiation. In fashion the human character combines the tendency towards social equalisation with the desire for individual differentiation and change. The fashion of today is marked with an individual stamp, which the fashions of yesterday and tomorrow do not possess. Visually, fashion is: ' … revolving within a given circle and at the same time emphasising it as separate from others' ([1904] 1971: 297).
For Simmel, fashion signifies union with those in the same class, the uniformity of a circle characterised by it, yet also, simultaneously and inseparable from inclusion, the exclusion of all other groups. He was writing about a society based on class, where all lower classes were striving for the fashions of the upper class, who created new ones as soon as the old were imitated. This is an early articulation of what later became known as the ‘trickle-down’ theory of fashion diffusion (Corrigan, 1997). This theory can no longer be limited to class imitation; there is no longer a… ' … hierarchically organised, symbolically consensual prestige structure in society, one in which all groups, classes and coteries looked...in the same direction for cues for what was thought to be beautiful, acceptable and fashionable...students of fashion diffusion in today’s world claim that a condition of polycentrism prevails’ (Davis, quoted in Corrigan, 1997: 171).
Simmel was, after all, writing in the early 1900s. However the symbolic use of fashion described by Simmel, and the signifying affect of inclusion and exclusion, still applies. This is a fundamental aspect of the human condition, which fashion accommodates and gives social effect to; a condition that has an almost paradoxical essence, the human need both to belong to and to stand out from the crowd. Having examined fashion and its relationship to the individual and society, it is
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worth considering, with the ‘self’ in mind, how this actually manifests itself. Simmel and Goffman stand either side of one of sociology’s early institutional achievements, the Chicago School (see Hannerz, 1980). Simmel’s work influenced Robert Park (Park and Burgess, 1984), and Goffman belonging to the later generation of Chicago scholars. Goffman’s The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (1959) examined the social self and interaction. This classic work implied that social interaction is dependent on the wider social structures of society, which in turn are dependent upon the social interaction of individuals who must share a stock of social knowledge for successful interaction to occur. Individuals of a collectivity must share the same reality, a reality that arises from a shared knowledge of meanings. For Goffman, social interaction is as much to do with presenting oneself to others, about giving and receiving impressions, as it is to do with holding conversations. His analogy of theatre and drama is a central contribution to our understanding of the complexities of social life. He saw individuals as actualising social characters, which depend upon socially shared roles and rules to make themselves intelligible. Goffman focuses on the performances involved. To bring a role to life involves, consciously or unconsciously, intentionally or unintentionally, displaying oneself as a particular kind of person or social actor and so the art of impression management is used by individuals to manipulate their presentation of self. Goffman’s Frame Analysis (1974) suggests that everyday life can be seen as a series of frames, through which individuals move in the course of the day. These frames act to organise experience that would otherwise be an overwhelming chaos of facts and events. Social acts make sense through the socially defined reality that constitutes a frame, which transforms the more basic reality of the physical world and its pre-existing primary reality. In Goffman's later work, The Interaction Order (1983), one of the main points he emphasised, which is central to this article, is the capacity to create meaning. The give and take of social encounters involves interpretive work by the participants who construct understandings and agreements about the meaning of objects and events around which the encounter revolves. These 6
meanings only exist within the workings of the encounter. They reside in the response of those who are experiencing the encounter and the emergent definitions and understandings that arise between them. Due to this factor, the interaction order is unfinished, in that: 'individuals are constantly at work, not only promoting, reinforcing, repairing or restoring social order, but creating, recreating and rearranging it' (Burns, 1992: 82).
Goffman saw the self as not so much as a private, individual attribution, as a public reality, created by and having its existence in public interaction. Interaction creates identity just as the particular identities of participants will affect the shape of interaction (referred to by Jenkins as the internal-external dialectic of identity, see below). For Goffman, individuals negotiate their identities within the interaction order as they move through framed routines. But how does the interaction order, and, in that, social order, come about? For interaction to work there is a world of systemised, patterned, symbolically templated way of doing things: a socially constructed reality (Berger and Luckmann, 1966). All social groups are institutions, established patterns of identifying individuals in a local context. Decisions are made and behaviour orientated with reference to these established ways of doing things: institutionalisation (Jenkins, 1997). Institutions have a history, in that each is a pattern of behaviour that persists over time. This institutionalised world is experienced as an objective reality, which individuals move through. By experiencing the reality of the institution, individuals also create it through and in their reflective consciousness. Institutions require legitimisation, to be learnt by new generations and to ‘hang together’ (Berger and Luckmann, 1966: 81), and it is through socialisation that meanings are passed down through generations. Thus, for Goffman, order and the predetermined frames which individuals enter into are institutionalised and legitimised through the production and reproduction of knowledge, symbolic universes from which individuals draw on the same supplies of meanings. This account of Goffman’s work, and the mention of Berger and Luckmann, 7
sets the scene for an examination of skateboard subcultures. It suggests how a collectivity can come about and persist over time as a subculture. It is in the nature of social reality that all subcultures become institutionalised if they exist over time. Through the symbolic universes available to skateboard subculture, the meanings within it become internalised and transmitted to co-members and it is this that creates the subculture, a culture that is within, but separate from, the main culture. Having examined how, as a collectivity, a subculture can exist and how meanings are transmitted, how do processes of social identity fit in? Through a consideration of Social Identity (Jenkins, 1996), the focus can now be shifted to the individual social actors of which the subculture consists. Jenkins is interested in the process of identity formation, in how identity works or is worked, in process and reflexivity, and in the social construction of identity in interaction and institutionality. Drawing on the work of Goffman, among others, he concerns himself with the interactional constitution of social identity. For Jenkins, social identity refers to the ways in which individuals and collectivities are distinguished in their social relations with other individuals and collectivities. Subsequently, identity is as necessary a pre-requisite for social life, as the reverse is true. Jenkins uses a model of an internal-external dialectic of identity to explain both individual and collective identities. He emphasises two significant differences between the construction of individual identities and collective identities, the former stressing difference and the latter similarity. Individual identity, which is embodied in the self, is meaningful only within the social world of other people; it is socially constructed. It is the ongoing and simultaneous synthesis of self-definition (the internal moment) and definitions of oneself offered by others (the external moment). What people think about us is as important as what we think of ourselves. Those to whom the identity is asserted, must also validate the asserted identity. Individuals present an image of themselves for acceptance by others (the internal moment of the dialectic process of identification) as a public image. The external moment of the dialectical process is the reception by others of that presentation: the 8
acceptance (or not) of the identity. The fundamental principles in the working of this are similarity and difference. For individual identity, the emphasis is placed upon difference to others, yet what makes a collective identity is similarity to those whom belong. Collective identities can be separated into groups and categories. A collectivity that identifies and defines itself can be characterised as a group for itself, while a collectivity that is identified and defined by others can be characterised as a category in itself. Youth, consumption and identity Cultural studies is an interdisciplinary approach to analysing culture. This variety and mix of disciplines and techniques has brought creativity in its approach, but it has also created some ambiguity as to what cultural studies actually is (it also raises the questions of how it differs from the traditional anthropological concept of culture). There are some basic concerns and concepts that identify a cultural studies approach (Crosset and Beal, 1997: 74). Although there is a burgeoning field of American cultural studies, the work of the Birmingham University Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (CCCS) led the way in the development of the distinct British cultural studies approach. There was a strong political and ideological content within this school, rooted in the proposition that societies are unequally structured and all individuals do not have equal opportunities. Cultural studies in Britain has moved through a number of distinct phases (Bounds, 1999: 18). Between 1956 and 1969, cultural studies emerged largely due to the efforts of the three ‘founding fathers’ - Raymond Williams, Richard Hoggart and E. P. Thompson - and effectively became an independent subject in 1964, when Hoggart established the CCCS at Birmingham University1. All three were strongly influenced by their membership of the New Left group of intellectuals, students and political activists who aimed to develop a new form of socialist politics. The themes emerging from the New Left helped to set the agenda for early cultural studies, based in the belief that the existing forms of socialism were excessively authoritarian, with political 9
power concentrated in the hands of the elite. The underlying idea was that socialism could only work effectively if ordinary people ran it for themselves. The cultural aspect of this was in the drive to restore a cultural dimension to radical politics. Socialists had become preoccupied with issues of economic and political reform and the main task facing the post-war left was to create a new cultural settlement in Britain in which working-class ways of life would be more highly valued. Towards the end of the 1960s cultural studies entered a new phase, heavily influenced by Marxist ideas, notably Gramsci (1971), lasting until the early 1980s. The political characteristic of this cultural studies was opposition to capitalism, as opposed to the former reformist characteristic of the New Left. More fundamental, however, was that Marxism provided cultural theorists with a distinct analysis of the role of culture in modern societies, relating cultural processes to economic developments by understanding how culture is used to legitimise the existing system, or - crucially - how it can be used to subvert and undermine it. Finally, the rise of Thatcherism and the New Right convinced many of the subject’s leading figures that the socialist movement had run its course. Western societies were believed to be entering New Times, (Hall and Jacques, 1990) characterised by ‘post-Fordist’ economics and ‘post-modern’ culture. Central to the ‘culturalist’ position within the CCCS during its heyday was the analysis of youth subcultures (see Hebdige, 1979; Willis, 1977; Hall et al., 1993), underlying which was the belief that popular culture is often the site of resistance or opposition. In a brief summary of Hall, Jefferson, Willis and Hebdige, Bounds writes: 'Most subcultures involve an attempt by working-class youths to employ style, ritual and other forms of personal behaviour to express ‘symbolic resistance’ to aspects of their class experience' (1999: 56).
Consumption is cultural (Slater, 1997). It always involves meanings that are necessarily shared meanings. Individual preferences which are born within a culture draw on languages, values, rituals, habits and so on that are social in 10
nature, even when individually contested, rejected or reinterpreted. Consumption is culturally specific, articulated within or in relation to specific meaningful ways of life. One of the ways culture is produced and reproduced is through consumption, as are social relations and, indeed, society. A way of life or a culture in the anthropological sense - as opposed to merely staying alive - involves knowing the local codes of needs and things and it is through the demonstration of this knowledge that the culture is reproduced and the membership of a particular social order demonstrated. Slater argues that the meaningful structure behind these social actions represents the enactment of the membership of a culture. Social relationships themselves, as well as identity, are reproduced through culturally specific consumption and changing or rejecting the consumption codes of the culture negotiates both identity and aspects of the culture. As O’Flinn (1990) has pointed out, clothing represents, along with food and shelter, one of the basic requirements of human survival, but an understanding of clothing does not stop there. Allied to this is the whole question of clothing as an aspect of culture. The way in which we cover our bodies sends out a multitude of signals to other people about our identity, who we are and whom we would like to be seen as (and whom we would not). In the modern western world, advertising and its cultural permeation restructured and realised our relation to clothing and to the significance of fashion during the first quarter of the 20th century (Martin, 1995: 235). Fashion assumed new roles and forms represented and disseminated through advertising. Martin notes that the relative intimacy of fashion and cosmetics - 'both cleaving to moral prohibitions as well as oppositionally to a strong sense of modern wellbeing and self-image' (Martin, 1995: 236) - only made the consumer more responsive and more vulnerable to advertising’s projection of product and desire. Hebdige (1988) proposes that youth is present in society only when its presence is, or is regarded as, a problem. The consuming image of youth however, from the 1950s brought a different face to youth: youth at its leisure, youth as fun. The invention of the ‘teenager’ as a category is bound up with 11
the creation of the youth market. A new range of commodities and commercial leisure facilities absorbed the surplus cash, which working class youth had at their disposal for the first time. It provided a space within which youth could construct its own identities untouched by the parent culture. In the 1950s this, then, changed the categories the ‘respectable’ and ‘criminal’ classes to ‘conformist’ and ‘non-conformist’ youth. Seabrook argues that the whole experience of growing up in contemporary society has been transformed, from an experience based on the culture of the working class communities to one based on the culture of the shopping precinct (cited in Miles et al., 1998). Therefore, Seabrook suggests, the market has a fundamental influence on the everyday life of young people, and whilst class community and allegiance may have broken down in recent years, young people have come to look for selffulfilment in the ‘arms’ of consumer goods. So Seabrook sees traditional forms of identity transmission as having been diluted, to the extent that manufacturers now have the power to guarantee the passage of children through to adulthood. Subcultures Subcultures can be considered as arenas of activity and meaning that negotiate between the personal world of the actor and the dynamics of larger patterns of social interaction. As a concept 'subculture' has much to offer the sociological understanding of human interaction seen against a cultural and symbolic background (Gelder and Thornton, 1997). It takes role-play and reconstructs it as an active ingredient in a dialectical relation between structure and action (Brake, 1980). For Gordon, subculture 'is a world within a world, so to speak, but it is a world' (1947: 41). Yinger discusses attempts to define subculture, applying the term to illuminate the normative systems by which smaller groups differ by 'language, values, religion, diet and style of life from the larger society of which they are part' (1960: 626). Brake (1985) argues that subcultures are based upon the dominant system, but what makes them a subculture is the fact that they are unique. He writes that it is the degree of opposition that signifies the distinction between a 'counterculture' and a subculture. A subculture is not 12
completely oppositional to the norms and values of the broader culture from which it departs, unlike a counterculture; a more appropriate description might be indifferent (see, for example, Yinger, 1960). The collective identity of youth subcultures also offers a platform from which an individual identity can develop, ‘freed from the ascribed roles of home, school and work’ (Brake, 1980: 166). The cognitive material provided allows for a development of an alternative career, free from control and authority of the adult world and with freedom amongst one’s peers. This separation is a dramaturgical statement about identity difference from imposed expectations, and allows for freedom to explore and develop social and personal identities. An analysis of youth subcultures has been a focus of scholars influenced by the CCCS. Dick Hedbige’s (1979) Subculture: The Meaning of Style is an analysis of youth subculture which describes subculture as an area in which groups of people challenge the dominant meanings assigned to cultural products, through the style and imagery used. The ways in which commodities are used in subcultures mark the subculture off from more orthodox cultural formations. The intentional communication of subculture through style is ‘a visible construction, a loaded choice. It directs attention to itself; it gives itself to be read’ (1979: 101). Hebdige argues that this distinguishes the visual ensembles of a subculture from those favoured in the surrounding culture(s). This intentional communication is what stands apart from a mainstream culture, whose defining characteristic, according to Barthes, is the tendency to naturalise social phenomena and to assume that what it is, must be. Here the world presents itself as if composed according to ‘the evident laws of the natural order’ (Barthes 1972, quoted in Hebdige, 1979: 102). Subcultures recontextualise and reposition commodities, subverting their conventional use and inventing new ones. This opens up the world of objects to new and oppositional readings. Therefore the point behind a subcultural style is its communication of a significant difference, and the parallel communication of a group identity. Willis exemplifies this point in Common Culture, suggesting that: 13
‘young people are very adept at the symbolic work of… "reading off" and decoding the dress styles of others and relating them to musical, political and social orientations’ (1990: 88).
Brake gives an account of the levels in which a subculture exists. Firstly, on a structural level, it indicates how ‘culture is mediated to and generated by a collectivity of social actors’ (1980: 9). On the existential level, it indicates how meanings are taken from a subculture, and used to project an image and therefore an identity (see Goffman, 1959 and Jenkins, 1996). This effects the internal labelling element of identity: external symbols are used to develop a self-image, which has a cultural and existential reality to the actor and to all those observing. The cultural studies approach has done much to overcome the narrow and ahistorical view of subcultures within interactionism. However, the cultural analysis of writers such as John Fiske and Paul Willis has been accused of a ‘populist’ approach. The combination of an uncritical celebration of popular culture with an indifferent attitude towards serious arts has been described as the direct result of the abandonment of Marxism. The cultural populist, it is argued, seems to be compensating for political disappointment by conceiving of ‘common’ culture as the site of vigorous radicalism (McGuigan, 1992). What is more, defining and describing subculture in terms of conflicts within the broader culture, risks overlooking the unique experiences of, for example, sports subcultural practices (Albert, quoted in Crosset and Beal, 1997). It would be all too easy to lose the lived experience of those belonging to a sport subculture by becoming lost within politics. What can also be ignored in analysing subcultures purely within a conflict perspective, is how they draw from the existing culture from which the subculture descends. More important to this article, this approach often neglects the tensions that can exist within a subculture, treating it as a definite, concrete and authentic entity (McGuigan, 1992). This neglects the tensions that can surface within the subculture itself. The research on which this article reports documents the complex processes 14
of style as communication between those participating within skateboarding subculture. Communications between skateboarders and the broader society will be touched upon, but the intention here is to challenge the assumption that a subculture is solid within itself, illustrating, through the interconnection and the workings of the subculture, the many divisions within skateboarding subculture. I use the concept of ‘social worlds’ as a tool for examining skateboarding subculture. This has its roots in the focus of Chicago School ethnographers on overlapping 'social worlds' within modern urban life. Unruh (1983) describes social worlds as permeable, amorphous and spatially transcendent forms of social organisation made up of people sharing common interests and common channels of communication. They are not defined in relation to the dominant culture, but by the production of a social object. Social worlds are often segmented into 'subworlds', inviting the researcher to discover these subworlds within a social world. This approach encourages an exploration of culture on its own terms, focusing on a sphere of communication around a social object. Subworlds can also be subcultures if they ‘exaggerate or ignore specific norms, values and practices of the broader culture to such an extreme that those within mainstream society define the subworld as repulsive, oppositional or marginal’ (Crosset and Beal, 1997). This article describes, through the example of fashion, the complexities of the skateboard subculture, with all it entails. As Beal has noted (1995: 255), there is not a ubiquitous skateboard culture. It seems that there are a variety of subgroups that skateboard. Beal’s focus was the social resistance of the skateboard culture, a continuum of hegemonic to counter-hegemonic behaviour ranging from those who embraced the corporate bureaucratic form of activity to those who resisted it. The focus here, however, is on influences on the fashion of skateboarding, which include commercially produced paraphernalia but are not exclusive to it. The varying effect that identity has on fashion, and the effects that fashion has on identity, will provide a platform on which to investigate this domain. Skateboarding has many external influences from which it draws, yet, at the same time, within skateboarding there are many tensions, or decisions which skaters face. Whether a skater is fashion conscious, or resists the image, is irrelevant here: what is of central 15
concern is the relationship a skateboarder has with clothing in communicating social identity. Inquiring into skateboarding: methods Social identity and fashion have been linked as aspects of the presentation the self as a particular type of person, having a particular role to play in the social sphere. An early group interview with skaters served as a pilot study for this research, and drew out themes that were likely to arise. It soon became apparent that fashion was a key to the examination of skateboarding as a subculture. The clothes that skateboarders wear communicate many different aspects of what it actually means to be a skater, and, far from being simple, the fashions convey an intricate web of influences. For the first ten minutes the group of skaters was asked about fashion within the realm of skateboarding and this then proceeded to the examination of a photographic book of skaters, skateboards, art, adverts of logos, magazines, and clothing (Rose, 1999). The discussion was then encouraged to find its own path, based on the skaters’ thoughts on the content of the book. This allowed insights into the themes of clothing and some of the history of the culture and its corporate elements. It gave insights into the differentiation of music, and the difference between 'old skool' skateboarding, in the 1970s, and now. The book was an initial sensitising tool that gave a feel for the ground that would be covered in future conversations. However, I decided only to use it during that initial interview, since the topic under discussion was the skateboarders themselves, rather than more general themes and history. Skaters were interviewed in situ to achieve a broadly ethnographic, unstructured, and exploratory interview (Spradley, 1979) that would enable a flexible approach to the skateboarders. This made space for the improvisation needed to grasp the unexpected and to learn through observation in context. It also encouraged me to take ‘a stance which emphasised seeing things from a perspective of those being studied’ (Fielding, quoted in Gilbert, 1993: 156), being a stranger to the culture myself. Due to the lack of formal organisation of skateboarders as a group, there were 16
no key figures or gatekeepers to approach about access. Neither is there an official location in which to find skaters: skaters are on the streets. Therefore access was negotiated with each new skateboarder approached throughout the research. Bute Square, situated just outside Cardiff city centre, is a regular meeting place for skaters, and it was here and in the surrounding areas that this research was carried out. This also encouraged observation as a research tool. All the interviews were recorded with a dictaphone, and all participants were aware that they were being recorded and were asked permission before hand. As mentioned above, the approach taken was a broad 'ethnographic interview' technique (Spradley, 1979), supported by observation. Choosing this approach allowed for the exploration of many concepts that were still unknown to the researcher. With the emphasis on social identity, dress, and skateboard fashion seen as a form of communication, this allowed for an insight into the skaters’ own accounts of their meanings and behaviour. By sharing conversations with skaters which had a purpose, but also an openendedness, it was possible to obtain more of a feel for the experience of the skaters and the underlying social rules that were being followed. If interviewees elaborated on other concerns not directly significant to this research, this provided a feel for the backdrop which is the context of this subculture, giving an insight into the symbolic universe which all participants share, yet all experience as unique. The interviews were conducted not as a 'free-for-all', but with themes in mind. If the conversation moved away for too long, it was steered back by introducing a new question. Because interviewing took place in situ, a flexible approach was needed in order to absorb as much of the subculture as possible. It was impossible and unnecessary to predict or control which, and how many, skateboarders were to be interviewed. This depended on who was in the field and who would give permission to be interviewed. Because of the nature of the skating subculture, the majority of interviews that took place were group interviews, allowing for group dynamics to become an integral part of the procedure. The discussions were relaxed, often comical, and rich in data, 17
enabling me to see the negotiations between different meanings for different individuals. As MacLeod also found in his use of ethnographic interviewing, although hard to keep track of, it is incredibly rich in the data produced (1995: 287). The lack of consistency of opinions, confusing at first, provided a valuable insight into the tensions that underlie the fashions of the skateboarder. Nine interviews took place in total during the summer of 2001, three individual interviews and six group interviews, In total, eighteen skateboarders were interviewed. Observation allowed me to absorb the more general backdrop of the skateboarding scene. The interaction, the clothing and the performative aspect of the sport itself could be observed and other people’s reactions to skaters, either in location or elsewhere, gave a feel for the kinds of reactions skateboarders have to deal with whilst participating in their sport. It also was possible to observe the kind of space that skaters use in and around Cardiff City centre, and the common features of this space. The observational data rounded out the discussions and therefore allowed for richer insights. Although this research was not of a sensitive nature, it is important to consider the ethical dimension, as in all research. Barnes has defined the ethical decisions in research as those which: 'arise when we try to decide between one course of action and another not in terms of expediency or efficiency but by reference to standards of what is morally right or wrong' (Barnes, 1979: 16).
This makes explicit the point that ethical decisions are not made in terms of what is advantageous to the researcher or the project itself, but what is right and just, in the interests of all those that are participating in the research. Ethical considerations were ongoing throughout the research process. I took a 'situational relativist' approach, in which the ethical dilemmas of the social scientist are not seen as special, but as: 'co-terminous with everyday life,...there can be no absolute guide lines; ethics have to be produced creatively in the concrete situation at hand' (Plummer, 1983: 141). 18
Under the Ethical Guidelines of the British Sociological Association (1993), researchers have a responsibility to ensure that the physical, social and psychological well being of research participants is not adversely affected by the research. Researchers enter into personal and moral relationships with those they research. The issues surrounding covert research are not relevant to this research, as the methods used necessarily involved the consent of those taking part. However, data provided by the informants must nonetheless be used ethically. Observation, as the least obtrusive of all data gathering techniques, can also be ‘liable to abuse in the invasion of privacy’ (Adler and Adler, quoted in Denzin and Lincoln, 1988). However, taking on board the performative and public performances of the skateboarders in the practice of their sport, the observations were not deemed to be an invasion of privacy, nor did those involved in the interview procedure find this to be the case. The age of the sample was also an important ethical consideration. The only boundary placed upon the sample was that those approached should belong to the skateboard subculture. This meant that age would be varied and uncontrolled. The age range of my sample varied from 13 to 28, and so there were participants who would be deemed to be children. The most obvious ethical issue, therefore, concerned researching with children. This research is a contribution to 'a sociology which attempts to take children seriously as they experience their lives in the here and now as children' (Morrow and Richards, 1996: 92). I therefore saw the exclusion of some of the skateboarders, due to their age, as a disadvantage. The study is interested in youth and youth subcultures and would be limited in the thoroughness of the research process if it were to exclude a proportion of those that were accessible. I explained clearly the purpose and nature of the research when asking for the skaters’ consent, and I regarded all the children involved as competent to consent (or not) to talking to me. They were in Cardiff City centre, unsupervised by an adult, and the information required was directly related to 19
their activities within the centre. They were free to leave the discussions at any time due to the nature of the setting. All respondents agreed to me approaching them again with further questions and I took this as an indication that none were socially, psychologically or physically harmed by the research process. Indeed, the involvement of the children in the decision making process about whether to take part could itself be seen as a useful experience, giving the children a sense of control over their own individuality, autonomy and privacy (Morrow and Richards, 1996). To further talk about themselves, their thoughts, beliefs, ideas, passions and resentments of skating and dress only seemed to add to this experience. Skateboarding subculture Any individual who participated in this project may have belonged to other subcultures simultaneously or since the time of this research. There are different between the members of the skateboard subculture interviewed in the intensity of their participation and attachment. Although these issues need to be acknowledged, they will not be addressed: ‘trying to use all-or-none membership in a single subculture can never result in more than partial success’ (Arnold, 1970: 87). One thing made immediately apparent to me on my first pilot interview was how many influences permeated the skateboard fashion scene. For a newcomer who is first learning the basic tricks of the skateboard this could only be fairly daunting. Nonetheless, I was amazed at how much some of the newest skaters to the scene had already picked up about fashion, considering that it is secondary to the act of skating itself. I was curious about this because it illustrated the importance of the ‘presentation’ of the public self, particularly considering how exposed skaters are to each other and the general public. Skateboarders participate in their sport on the street and there is a sure street credibility that is part of the skaters’ social consciousness. Skateboarding is a very performative sport and those who partake in it are aware that it draws attention. It is, perhaps, a performance that doesn’t have the back stage in which to prepare the performance away from observation until a sufficient skill has been achieved; the rehearsal and the performance 20
seem very much inseparable (Goffman, 1959). Skaters also lack an allocated frame of space in which to partake of their sport. They use the streets, rehearsing their skills on the available features of the urban landscape. Although there are some skate parks in different localities, they usually required a fee, and it appeared that those in and around Cardiff, if they were still open for use, were badly maintained. Perhaps because of the attention they draw, particularly from each other, the image-consciousness of the skaters points to the need to feel comfortable in how and to whom they are presenting themselves. For this to be the case, a shared knowledge of meanings among the skateboard collective is required, to draw from and through which to communicate. I was interested in what means were used to transmit the stock of social knowledge and meanings from one 'generation' of skaters to the next. Lewis:
Em, I mean …//…, I think it’s mainly just the fact that everything, the transference of like culture and fashion from the States, is a lot faster now and I think although the skateboarding comes across really fast because it’s like, that’s where it is, that’s where everyone’s looking, everyone’s getting the American magazines, everything like that and so there’s a scene here, but everyone here’s not looking really at what’s… you know it’s not like it’s dislocated from what’s going on in the States, but it’s… everything that ever happens here is totally straight from there.
Lewis first picks up on influence from the States, where skateboarding had its genesis: a trans-national, perhaps even a global, web of subcultural influence manifests itself in Cardiff city centre. But there is also communication via local knowledge, as well. Many of the new skaters can use the local ‘old boys’ as a resource for much of the shared knowledge required.
21
Janine:
So how do you find out about all the history about it? Is it just talking about it with your mates?
Josh:
Through the old boys
Kirk:
Yeah, it’s just through the old boys really. Like him, he’s been skate boarding for years, he’s still skateboarding now. It’s a very inspiring culture isn’t it? Very expressive.
Janine:
Yeah it is. And the best bit about it is, is that a lot of the older
Kirk:
skaters are still skating so you still...our generation still gets to hear what it was like, what’s… what was the olden days, kinda thing.
There are various media through which to discover the culture of skateboarding. Videos and the internet, for example, were also mentioned as giving access to a vast array of information. The culture of skateboarding draws upon its stock of social knowledge both globally and locally. The collective identity draws upon the social environment of people, through interaction, through chat rooms and web sites on the internet, and through commodities such as videos and magazines. This is a means of transmitting the significant social constructions of meanings attached to the culture, which the skateboarders draw on in their construction of identity. There are many divergences within skateboarding; subgroups within the collectivity. Although many different factors influence where someone locates him or herself within these subdivisions, there appears to be a common thread of why people are where they are. Music, style of skating, and appearance all go hand in hand with one another. All affect and are affected by, each other, so there is no one singular discrete entity. Lewis:
Yeah, well, like, there’s the whole different kinds of skateboarding I suppose… You know coz like, there’s the punk skaters and then there are the rap hip-hop skaters and then.. there are the people that are just, I dunno, whatever. Erm, basically you belong to one of those groups, you know, and it’s the punk skaters that tend to be the ones that just throw themselves down the steps and do hand rails and stuff like that and hip hop skaters tend to be like all techy, flippy crap and stuff 22 like that so…
be the ones that just throw themselves down the steps and do hand rails and stuff like that and hip hop skaters tend to be like all techy, flippy crap and stuff like that so… It is already possible to see how music and skate style are being linked together in a quite direct relationship. This quote illustrates one division within skateboarding - in music - and how this affects skate style and image. This is not to say that a skater can only like one or the other musical form, but these general divisions seem to go a long way in explaining further boundaries down the line, as will become apparent. The split into ‘sub sub’ cultures signifies an ongoing discussion within the subculture as a whole, and the different themes running through it. What is of particular interest here is how these divergences manifest themselves visibly, and so communicate themselves to those who understand the symbolic world of skaters. These splits signify a social group within a social group, with members recognising themselves as belonging to a subcollectivity as well as the whole. To an outsider, however, skateboarders are categorised as one whole collectivity. Drawing on aspects of Jenkins work (1996), a social category is defined externally, and its members may be unaware of their collective identity. In the case of skateboarders, they are aware of their collective identity, thus making them a social group for themselves. The detail that is missed by those who categorise those belonging to the subculture, and who are external to it, is the sub-grouping and how central this is to the subculture of skateboarding. An important aspect of the skateboarding fashion scene is the distinction between 'old skool' and 'nu skool'. Ben and Sam make a general differentiation:
23
Ben:
I'd say that generally old skool is associated with the rougher round the edges, freestyle style, which can be related to all dress, music, logos, and that. I dunno...Shell-toe Adidas? 70's basketball tops? Nu skool I would say is a bit slicker in production and style… generally more well polished and refined.
Sam:
That sounds about right....not sure about nu skool, it can either be them punk ass brats that are into like nu metal. Or nu skool as in more chilled skaters, rebelling against the attitudey bullshit. Or nu skool as in more arsey, who can be the most mental and meanest to each other. Or nu skool as in the tricks are getting more mental, too many flips and shit. There was never any of that way back when. It's getting way more tech now. Some crazy people out there are really pushing the boundaries. Or nu skool as in all the big companies have taken over, making money out of the kids and it's got more about the style and big labels than actually skating to have a laugh with your mates.
Nu skool is the now. The style of nu skool can be anything that is happening within the skateboard culture that is not inspired by what was last year, or even last month. The latter, more specific, description of nu skool by Sam seems to be confirmed by Jimmy who takes on a very nostalgic view of old skool, as one of the older skaters to be interviewed for this project. Jimmy:
Old skool is that underground sport feel that dominated the late eighties, because… this is its background, its history, this is the old. Money, fame, arrogance and perfect boards are the new. I mean, I suppose that can be said about every sport that eventually breaks free and goes mainstream. In the battle between old versus new, nu might be flashier, but old is the faithful… the fun, but most importantly it is the true character builder.
So old skool refers to how things used to be. It concerns itself with the skate scene in the beginning, before everything came 'down to corporations'. The 24
corporations contaminated the scene, in some eyes, by 'the good companies getting the good skaters, therefore you buy their clothing and it supposedly makes you know what's good in skateboarding. It’s a whole lot of bullshit'. Both old skool and nu skool are important contemporary influences on skateboard fashion. The divisions can be found in music, skate style, fashion, and logos, and there are also differences in the board, with the newer versions becoming smaller. Danny:
Like you can tell with the boards as well that they’re old skool coz they’re usually a lot wider.
Janine:
The old skool is wider?
Kirk:
Yeah say my board's 7.5 inches then like old skool boards could be 8 inches, 8 and a quarter, something like that.
Jimmy sees this change in board size as going to the heart of the old skool-nu skool divide: Jimmy:
With smaller wheels and like weaker, lighter, and more fragile trucks2, you’re already buying replacement parts for your board even before you’ve even left the shop. It’s like skateboarding has become less of a hobby, less of a sport, less of a culture and more of a billion dollar industry.
Many of the corporations that are putting skateboard goods out on the market are owned by skaters themselves: skaters who were successful in gaining sponsorship from other skateboard companies. They are either praised and held up as skating heroes, who have managed to ‘make it’ by turning their passion, their hobby and their lifestyle into a living, or, alternatively, they are regarded as the ‘rat’ who sold out to the whole corporate game: yet another ongoing discussion between skateboarders seeking to locate themselves within the myriad identities at stake within this subcultural scene.
25
The never-changing face of skateboard fashion Steven Miles (1998) writes that fashion illustrates a mobile society, constantly changing and updating itself in order to reap the concurrent economic benefits. However, the fashions of the skateboarder, much as these do change, also hold to some unchanging laws of their own. These unchanging, continuing fashions are strongly connected to the actual sport itself and its practicalities. The typical baggy jeans or trousers worn by skateboarders, for example, have obvious implications for the ease of movement needed for the 'flying-through-the-air magic', as one skater eloquently named it. Frankie:
Everyone wears baggy jeans and everyone wears the skate shoes. Some things will never change.
The skating shoe has strong emphasis placed upon it by skaters. There are again some obvious practicalities, which are attached to the sport and of crucial consideration of the skater when purchasing a shoe. The design of the shoe has safety implications for the prevention of ankle injuries. Wear is another factor: if skaters are out everyday skateboarding, then even a shoe designed specifically for skateboarding will last only a couple of months, at the most. There are also considerations of how easy shoes are to skate in, with material being an important factor here: Lewis:
It’s to do with the sole because you want them to just… it’s probably really bad for your feet, but you just want them to just drop out if you know what I mean. So you’ve just… here’s a bit of rubber and then your foot so you’ve got a bit more feel if you know what I mean. Whereas when you get Nikes there’s like that much foam [indicating 1 inch with his fingers] like foam and stuff like that and there are certain… Like it’s like the Puma States and the Gazelles and things like that, they were good because they were just basically plimsoll shoes you know?
This said, there are also other aspects of skating footwear, less immediately practical, which act as a communication between skateboarders. A technical 26
looking shoe gives the impression of being a technical skater, whereas the plainer shoes are more desirable to the hand rail skater. So there is a relationship between the kind of shoe a skater would wear and the style a skater skates in. The concept of old skool-nu skool also enters into the equation: Janine:
That’s old skool is it?
Kirk:
Yeah
Josh:
Old skool shoes
Kirk:
Yeah really simple old skool and then you’ve got sommit like that and really technical. See the difference?
The distinction between old and nu skool has already been discussed, but it is possible to see how it enters into the design of the shoe and, therefore, communicates something of the self and the relationship with skateboarding. Whatever the durability of the shoe, with skaters being a fairly imageconscious street-styled group of individuals, there will always be the question of aesthetics: Lewis:
Well there’s always like the toss up between getting something durable, which doesn’t look quite as nice as other stuff but that’s gonna last like a month longer, or just getting some crazy shoes that look good but fucking them in like 2 weeks or something.
Lewis highlights another of the tensions that exist within the skateboarding world, having spoken earlier in the interview of the importance of the practical shoe and the benefits these have for the act of skating. He is making clear the choices on offer, between the practical, more durable shoe and the more stylish, aesthetically pleasing shoe. It is, as ever, a question of priorities, then: between durability and practicality, on the one hand, or street image, on the other. Frankie elaborates on this, talking of the kind of shoe used by certain skaters. There is also the communicative role of the shoe, which becomes apparent 27
from the image, which allows for an insight into what style the skater has on his (or her) deck: Janine:
So what makes you want a particular pair?
Frankie:
Er, the style of the shoe generally.
Janine:
Right.
Frankie:
And also it’s generally the image…the image of the shoe as well. I mean if you had lots of air soles and it’s a very like technical looking shoe, that would be for a more technical skater. Right.
Janine:
And a plain shoe that would be more sort of like for a hand rail
Frankie:
skater. I know that you can get, well I’ve been told you can get
Janine:
distinctions in the shoe, for example in old skool nu skool style. That’s a signature model [pointing to own shoes]. That’s an old skool [pointing to Jonny’s shoes], and that’s more a modern one
Frankie:
[pointing to own shoes]. Coz it’s more technical looking? Yeah. It's got sort of lumps in it, an…
Janine:
Right. So does style actually come into, sort of, what kinda shoe
Frankie:
you’d...?
Janine:
Yeah it, well, it depends how you skate. If you skated more old skool style skating then you’d probably buy that kinda brand.
Frankie:
So would you actually use as…I mean, for example, I wouldn’t have a clue… [of the distinctions] Yeah. It’s part of your identity, it's who you are, what you wear.
Janine:
Are you saying something of yourself to other skaters? Yeah to other skaters and to other people on the street as well.
Frankie: Janine: Frankie:
28
This extract further illustrates one of the central themes of the analysis: that nothing within skateboard culture is a separate entity, everything has a relationship with all the other themes within this culture. It shows how the style and image of the skater influences the choice of shoe worn. However, this is not a closed circuit of influence: the music the skater listens to has a relationship to the style of the skater, and so indirectly has an effect upon the style of shoe worn. Jonny:
The people who are like doing the biggest steps and the biggest handrails tend to be into more heavier music, and the attitude is different to people who are into doing the latest flip tricks, latest flipping your board to slide and flipping it back out again.
Music is an important part of the skateboarding culture and is reflected in the dress of skateboarders. Style of dress is strongly influenced by musical tastes. There appear to be two main musical themes running through this subculture: punk and hip-hop. Frankie:
It’s all to do with the kind of music you listen to as well and if someone listens to punk, they tend to wear more sort of like ripped jeans and more scabby clothing and like they don’t care if they have holes in their shoes. Then if someone listens to hip-hop they’d have the baggier jeans and their more sort of like wellknown brands.
The music listened to has considerable influence on, and resonance with, clothes worn and the style of skating technique. It is a significant element in the private image and the public image of the skateboarder, put to work in their identity construction: Dave:
Punk’s the more ragged side of it and hip-hop’s clean and polished and that, really.
29
So far, it is possible to see that music, old-nu skool, skate style, and fashion are all intimately connected. All influence how a skater will present him/herself to the world of skaters and to anyone who looks in on this world. As mentioned earlier, many of the skaters I spoke to suggested that there is a direct relationship between music and skating style. The mindset which goes with punk music also goes with the kind of skaters who ‘are throwing themselves down handrails’, while the more technical skater finds hip-hop more appealing. What creates these widespread divisions in skateboarding culture is unclear. However, it is apparent that these distinctions exist and seem to be widespread through the skateboard scene (albeit that there may be a few skaters who cross these social boundaries). Contrasting old skool and nu skool styles, and questions about the incorporation of the skating scene into the market, are also played out in the choice of music affiliation, as The G articulates, below. He encapsulates how these forms of self-expression became so intricately tied up together, and the changing nature of their relationship since the early days of skateboarding. He was the oldest of those who took part in this research, and seems to have been in a position to have seen many of the changes. He effectively summarises how the market has changed the relationship between skating and music. The G:
The strongest link between skateboarding and music is in the creation of the two themselves as joint entities. I mean during the 80s, San Francisco skate bands emerged… Black Flag, Flipper, Dead Kennedys, Fugazi, and that… well what’s interesting about this era of music and street culture is that the bands themselves were participant in that culture rather than just making music about it. I mean these bands were never famous in the true sense of the word and they were always as diverse in their music as they were varied in the skating subculture. I mean skating is itself splintered and underground known only really to its members. The music industry brought these people to the public's attention by making their music widely available in bigger outlets, and when these bands were eventually interviewed they all talked about their 30 experience as geeks, as being outsiders… you know on the edge
of society, and skateboarding, that was what they did
making their music widely available in bigger outlets, and when these bands were eventually interviewed they all talked about their experience as geeks, as being outsiders… you know on the edge of society, and skateboarding, that was what they did recreationally. Music was something else they did together. So UK skaters don't listen to that sort of punk. They’re into… what? More accessible …? That’s my point. The industry manufacture stuff that passes itself off as authentic and coz it sounds a bit authentic it’s used by the Janine:
masses… The real thing is left behind where it belongs on the street.
The G:
Again, there is a distinction between old skool and nu skool here, in reference to (punk) music. The G discusses a crucial distinction between the more authentic style music being created because of and within the skate subculture experience, and the imitation of it through the commercialisation of the subculture in the pursuit of profit. The skateboarders spoke of logos when I probed, but as much as the logo is inescapable in terms of the board and the shoes, there seems to be much less symbolic importance attached to these than to music, for example. Having said this, however, whatever the skateboarder’s opinion is of the logo, or lack of one, they do have a relationship with it. Jonny
You can’t really not get into logos, coz if you want a really good deck then the logos are the best, coz you can’t really buy a decent deck unless it’s actually made by a skate company and once you start getting the decks you start getting into the clothes then.
There seems to be a fairly ambiguous relationship between logos and the skateboard collective, which has more of an individualist nature than anything else. However, all skaters know the logos, and agree what their meanings 31
are. There are companies that represent different aspects of the skateboard culture and the choice of logo depends on a skateboarder’s own allegiance. Dave:
That, that T-shirt it’s like an S T-shirt.
Kirk:
It’s pointless, init?
Dave:
It’s not old skool or nu skool. If someone was just wearing that it would be, like ya know...
Janine:
It’s not making a statement either way?
Dave:
No.
Kirk:
But some companies do.
Dave
Like you must have heard of the company Vans?
Janine:
Yeah.
Dave
That’s definitely old skool.
One factor that was emphasised by many of the skaters I interviewed was that the logo worn by a skater would be associated with a certain skate hero. This seems dependent upon which favourite skater rides for which company. Lewis sums up the decision process of choosing a logo as follows: Lewis:
I think it’s generally personal taste and what skaters you like or whatever, who rides for who and all that crap. So I mean at the end of the day just about everything’s exactly the same. Right. And it’s just your own personal influences?
Janine:
Yeah, coz it’s the same like, it doesn’t matter what T-shirt you buy,
Lewis:
they’re all the same, so it’s just a question of what logo you want on it, and then how do you decide what logo you want? You go for whoever your favourite skateboarder rides for, or whatever, and like that, and it’s the same with shoes, and it’s the same with everything else, you know?
This opinion was reinforced by Jonny, who explains how he chooses what logo to wear by a process of disassociation, avoiding those logos that would link him to a skating style he disclaims:
32
Jonny:
Certain brands within skateboarding I wouldn’t buy to wear because that would associate me with a type of skateboarder that I’m not.
Janine:
So you would deliberately avoid certain brands?
Jonny:
Yeah I’d avoid certain brands because the team that they sponsor don’t skate in a style similar to what I skate in.
The use (or not) of logos and brands is as deliberate as other aspects of the skateboard fashion scene. The logo itself is not worn because it is seen as ‘cool’ in itself, but is used to signify an aspect of the skateboarder's influences and chosen identity. It is communicative of old skool or nu skool preference, skating heroes, and can also make overt statements about equipment used. For example, to a naïve observer the logo Independent on a T-shirt might seem a statement about a personal characteristic. However, within the symbolic world of the skater, the purpose is, ‘Just to say that you use Independent trucks, y’know’3. There seemed little doubt in Aaron’s mind, here, about what was being communicated and what was being read within the collective. Thus, in addition to skating style, old skool-nu skool, and music, logos are also an element of skateboarder fashion. However, there are ambiguous opinions about logos within the realm of skating. Many skateboarders reject the importance of logos, rooting for the ‘mix and match’ style of dress, where the style will be similar to commercially produced clothing, but brands are not consumed. An example of this is the purchase of trousers that are overly large from an army surplus store. These trousers seem to offer the same to the skateboarder in terms of style, but are a cheap alternative to what is being offered in skateboard shops by the brands. This didn’t seem to be a response to the corporations' infection of the skateboard scene, however, but more to do with the fact that it isn’t of the utmost importance, at least not to Josh: 'I don’t go out and buy all the expensive stuff because nobody notices anyway'. It is clear here that the main concern is imitating the general style and looking the part, rather than the conspicuous consumption of commercial logos.
33
It was actually very difficult to find a skateboarder who would admit to liking the logo fad. The older skaters believed it was younger skaters who were embracing the logos: Lewis:
I think when you’re younger you want brand name boards and stuff like that, but when you get older you realise that actually it’s cool just to get a cheap blank board, because it’s cheaper and they’re exactly the same. And you look…you look like, I dunno, whatever. You know it looks more cool because you’ve just got like a couple of stickers, or whatever.
The younger skaters believed it was the newer skaters: Josh:
It’s like people who have just started skating, they’ll like go out and buy everything. I mean, they’ll go out and buy a pair of the new, the newest pair of shoes out, and they’re like 90 quid. They’ll go out and buy them, their parents will go out and buy them for them. I like started off with a cheap pair of, like, 10 quid Vans, and I just work my way up. But, like, people just go out and they get, they throw all their old wardrobe away and buy all the, buy loads of these really expensive stuff and they can’t even do anything on a deck. It just really annoys me.
The newcomers insisted that their style of dress hadn’t changed since they became a skater, reasoning that they dressed that way for the music. Where were these skaters who embraced the logo? And if it is not skaters who are buying these skate products, then who is? Image, imitation and age Skaters are a very image-conscious collective, and offer an intentional presentation to those around them. This impression management offers the skater a certain amount of control, due to the deliberate and thoughtful image presented: it is created in the knowledge that it will be noticed. The performative aspects of skateboarding as a sport, in the public eye and very 34
much in each other’s eyes, combined with a shared stock of knowledge concerning style, leads to a very image-conscious identity. Skaters may lack control over their performance - at least until they become skilful - but one thing they can control is the impression they give. Once a skater becomes more adept at the sport, the need to find identity within the stylish codes of skateboard culture lessens. This may be due to age, but it could also reflect greater confidence in their performance, a stronger identity as an authentic skateboarder and thus less need for paraphernalia. So far I have focused on the shared meanings which combine to structure the collective social world and the branching subgroups within. Collectivities are, of course, comprised of individual social actors, all of whom have individual identities. Referring back to Simmel, ([1904] 1971) fashion acts as a cohesion between people, whilst excluding others. Its opposite social function, however, is to mark out the individual as different, as special. Jonny:
Because styles change quickly in skateboarding so people, because people, you are, you’re wearing out your clothes so quickly, shoes and trainers especially, you go though a pair a month quite easily. So you’re always getting the latest pair, you always want the freshest, the newest style to look different to everyone else. Why is it important to look different?
Janine:
Coz it’s your identity. And your identity, most skateboarders don’t
Jonny:
feel like they’re the same as the average people around. If you feel like it’s not like erm…I mean you go to a Max car rally and everyone’s wearing the same, like, trainers, and in
Frankie:
skateboarding everyone wants to be their own, y’know, be themselves, and they wanna stand out in a crowd really. So you want to stand out away from the actual skateboarding…? Yeah, within skateboarding, but you wanna stand out within certain groups of skateboarders.
Janine:
You want to be within but without.
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Jonny: Frankie: Jenkins (1996) describes individual identity as emphasising difference. The above quote illustrates how this can be accomplished with clothing. Through dress, skaters stand outside ‘normal’ people, feeling that they are different from everyone else. Inclusion and exclusion are inseparable, and the symbolic use of clothing signifies the exclusion of other people, in order for the skateboard collective to stand together within their own circle. And, by purchasing the freshest and newest style, individual skaters also have the means of ‘standing out’ within their own group. Simmel ([1904] 1971) also argues that fashion should belong to only a portion of the group at any one time, the great majority being merely on the road to adopting it. The spread of skateboard fashion, and skateboarding as a fashion, into the mainstream, produces a range of responses from skaters. As Lewis says: Lewis:
A lot of the thing at the moment is…people complain that it’s mainstream and stuff like that and it's that whole, erm… oh they say, ‘Oh all these kids are into skateboarding now aren’t into it, they’re just into it for the image, they’re not into it for the skateboarding’, ra ra ra...And then you get that side of it, but then if they’re people who are, like, ‘Oh I don’t really like skateboarding anymore because of all the posers’, and stuff like that, well then you're only saying that you don’t like skateboarding coz it’s not cool because no-one does it ,coz now it’s popular… it’s not cool anymore and that’s why you don’t do it. So you’re only doing it in the first place because to be cool, so you weren’t into it for the right reasons, either. You just have to say… ‘If you’re in it for the skating, you shouldn’t be complaining that there are people who aren’t in it for the skating’, you know? 36
aren’t in it for the skating’, you know? This illustrates many of the different perspectives within skating. There are those that take it as a lifestyle, as Lewis does here. But, drawing on what people are saying to him, Lewis has theorised the different reasons why people are attracted to skating. There seems to be a certain romanticised image of the skater as being focused, streetwise, someone who has street credibility: ‘cool’ in Lewis’s words. Or there are those who have sacrificed their passion because it is no longer distinct, it no longer has that ‘underground’ feel. Again, referring to Simmel, the distinctiveness of a fashion, which assures for it a certain distribution, is destroyed as the fashion spreads. As this element wanes, the fashion is also bound to die. This project focused on skateboarding fashion as a representation of social identity. The general experience of skateboarding social identity appears to differ with age. This may be because the majority who decide to take the sport up are, typically, in their early teens, with some beginning a lot younger. Social identity is always a moving story, always changing, always being updated. It is a process pushed along by reflexivity. With skateboarders it is possible to observe this process at work over time. Although the identification with a skateboard collective may remain, the position that an individual occupies within this evolves, and it’s possible to see this difference in their dress, and their attitude towards it. Skaters who, through time, become comfortable with their identity seem less concerned with the rules that were once so consequential for their identity and dress. Lewis:
So, when you’re starting, when you’re a kid, you’re looking at magazines and you wanna do everything that it is to do. You know it’s like peer pressure but it’s not it’s just like that… What this is I wanna do and I wanna look like everyone else that does it, so you do it like that.
Lewis refers to a very conscious process of fitting in to a group, and indicates the reflexivity needed to absorb the self into a given collectivity. This is not 37
only affected by the state of skateboarding, and where the influences are from on a collective level, but also by individual points of view. The magazines are a good resource for the feel of the culture of skating, and also to see what, as an individual skater, you should be striving for - in the paraphernalia - in terms of an identity to project to other skaters. Janine:
So what was the fashion like five years ago?
Frankie:
I was a lot younger so I was a lot more obsessive. He’s a lot older so…
It appears that Frankie is passing the conversation over to his older friend, who has a more distanced and objective relationship to the fashion scene of the skateboarder's five years earlier, possibly due to his age. Perhaps having been so immersed within it, to the point of being ‘obsessive’, doesn’t allow Frankie to feel that he can articulate reasonably what the fashion was, or feels somewhat embarrassed by his then relationship with the fashion of the time. As time moves on, and the skater feels more confident and comfortable with his/her identity, the need for such external symbols of belonging to the collective weaken, highlighting how identity is a moving process. As Frankie explains, the relationship to fashion changes once you get older. Frankie:
Er, young kids, they tend to go for all the big brand skateboarding. Erm, the older skaters they don’t seem to mind much anymore. I guess you get older you get more money, so... Yeah. So, so what does the money factor have to do with it?
Janine:
You get more clothes, spend more on your boards, it’s pretty much like fashion when you’re younger, you can’t always afford to
Frankie:
buy the trainers you want, but when you’re older you can always afford to buy the trainers.
There are contradictions here, but the gist of Frankie’s comments is that, as you get older and have access to more money, the desire for the branded commodities lessens. By the time they hit their early twenties the majority of skaters have distanced themselves from the logo, as they move out to 38
experience different roles in their lives. Some skaters drop the skate scene, before returning to it after a respite. Some never go back. Those that never leave it, or return to it, tend to see skateboarding as more than a hobby; they see it as a way of life and so brands are not as important to them. The marketing ploys used by corporations to give a feeling of ‘belonging’ to this collective, by submerging it with logos, appear to be ‘seen through’. Frankie:
Mainly it’s about your attitude towards skating.
Jonny:
For me definitely.
Frankie:
Most people tend to be quite relaxed towards it, and you do get some people who are very…get very agitated with things. Especially with better skateboarders, that is what is true. I dunno
Jonny:
about people that aren’t so good and don’t care so much about skateboarding, init. I doubt it makes so much difference to them. But I’m skateboarding everyday. It’s what I do mostly. If it does become a lifestyle to you and... It is a total lifestyle.
Frankie:
It’s like a job to them. So if it’s your job, then you always have to
Jonny:
push yourself to be the best. If you can’t be the best, then
Frankie:
otherwise you’re gonna get stressed out with it. Always try to do your best, that’s the main thing.
Those that do not continue with skateboarding ‘as a way of life’ seem to adopt skateboarding in their teens, as a means of exploring their identity away from the constraints of their early childhood lifestyle and identity. Once near the end of the teenage years, this may not be essential any more, perhaps, as they find different roles to ‘perform’ away from the skateboard scene. Those that remain with skateboarding culture, or return to it after a break, as many of the older skaters do, seem to take to it on a much deeper level; as a means of expression in itself. The fashions that come and go within the realm of skateboarding are kept at a distance, and the fashions of yesteryear, which were followed much more closely, are now dismissed. A new meaning in skateboarding has been found by these older skaters, and the need to be 39
conspicuously recognised as belonging to a skateboarding collective has waned. It seems enough to have a private relationship with the sport itself; the need to advertise it has ended. The public vs skateboarders Having explored the diversity of style within the subculture of skateboarding, I will now take the focus back out, to view the subculture in the eyes of those who are external to it. Ed:
That’s one thing we dislike.
Janine
What?
Ed:
Authority. Security guards always bust us for skating on the concrete.
Stephen:
Coz there’s no where to skate in Cardiff and this is a nice indoor place4, you know, for many, and like they’re moved on so much and you’ll see police just deliberately torture us, if we’re shit coz of the way you actually dress. I find that coz most skateboarders, if you’re caught skateboarding, and you’re all in your Nike and Adidas gear, the Police just tend to say to you ‘oh move along move along’. But when you're all in this, they come up to you and they’ll just say to you, ‘So where’s your drugs? What have you been smoking?’ And it’s all, ‘Oh I haven’t smoked anything.’5
It can only be presumed that these skaters were stopped because they were skating. However, their subsequent treatment, according to this interviewee, was directly related to their dress that is, in turn, directly related to music. This kind of treatment, therefore, is presumably not limited to skaters alone, and may include people who dress in a similar style. But what is unique to skaters is the reason police use to stop them on the street. Throughout my interviews and talks with skateboarders, the police and prejudice came up many times. One of the youngest skaters to whom I spoke told me of an occasion when there were roughly 30 skateboarders skating in one particular area. From the police’s perspective, they have to ask the skateboarders to ‘move on’ which, 40
from a ‘job's worth’ point of view, could be understandable. However, it is something else, perhaps reflecting the stereotypes upon which the police may draw, that it is justifiable to the police to ask this thirty strong group to stand in a row against the wall and then search them all for drugs. Because of the power play in this situation, skateboarders are not here a group for itself, but more a social categorisation in the eyes of those who hold the power, those whose opinions count. Here the external dimension of identity is of central importance. The police’s definition of the situation is the one that counts. It is those in authority who can decide the identity of these individuals and make their definition count. Moving away from the police, it could be argued that the emergence of skate parks is, in some way, an attempt by authority to ‘officially’ institutionalise the culture of skating, in the process removing some of the authenticity of the street culture itself. Skaters seek public space and streets to practice their sport and the experience of skating has emerged from this. The valid argument for skate parks is, of course, that they allow people to partake in their sport without the hindrance of external authority or obstructing the public. However, it should also be taken into account that skating as an art form includes improvising and constructing moves around street objects such as curbs, platforms, railings, benches and other seating areas. The skate park can allow for aspects of improvisation, but essentially it takes the art of skating and places it out of context, thereby changing the fundamental character of the culture. If the style of a subculture includes taking everyday objects and giving them new meaning (see Hebdige, 1991), then by removing the objects, the style of the subculture is fundamentally changed. Self-presentation and social identity The self-presentation of the skateboarder is a complex process, incorporating varied elements of the skating culture. Two threads run through the above analysis. The first is found in the dialectic relationship between skateboard fashion and the market. All the influences upon a skater’s social identity are drawn from a social/structural level, but the 'drawing from', and the 41
combination of all the influential factors, makes their communication a very personal and individual expression. If the style is pre-given, then it is taken by individuals and re-modified and updated. For each skater interviewed there are collective ‘objects’ to draw from, that enable them to represent an image of themselves to others who can understand the cultural symbols. Skateboard culture, as an authentic, experiential culture, has a dialectical relationship to the market. On the one hand, skateboarders use commodities as a means of cultural transference. It is due to the resources of the market that skateboard culture is no longer a local affair, but more trans-national, and even global. The market informs many of the styles that are found within the skateboard scene, and skaters deliver it to the streets. The concept of nu skool is an articulation of the omnipresence of commercialism within the skating subculture, affecting the symbols which skaters use in their construction of social identity. It is a dialectical relationship, which has now become a choice, something within which to choose a style. On the other hand, skaters inform the market about what can be sold on the street, what is the authentic ‘in’ style. As skaters try to distance themselves from the commercialisation of their culture by rapidly inventing new styles of authenticity, capitalism adopts these applications of stylistic innovation and reproduces them in the market (Klein, 2000). Many of the stylistic features are then adopted back by skate culture as a tool with which to construct their identity. After all, the advertising industry has long understood that ‘selling things to people often means selling them an identity too’ (Jenkins, 1996: 7-8). The skater is thus caught in the contradiction that Simmel saw as lying at the heart of fashion: on the one hand, the need for unity, to be in tune with contemporary developments and, therefore, to be alike to everyone else (collective identity), but, on the other hand, the aspiration to be different, to be special, and therefore unlike everyone else (individual identity). There is, then, a multi-level identity process occurring within the skateboard scene. The experiential aspect of the sporting subculture, on an embodied level, appears innovative, original, and creative, giving skaters a feeling of 42
‘being different’. Yet, simultaneously, through commercialisation, the subcultural style has become popularised, finding its way into mainstream youth culture. The subculture style no longer belongs to the authentic skater as a means of inclusion and exclusion; anyone can access it. Therefore the objects symbolising the culture of skateboarding are continually contested, and their worth and meaning negotiated. On top of this, there are ongoing arguments within skateboarding culture itself. These debates have emerged throughout the analysis, about music, logos, old skool and nu skool, skate style, imitation, and age. All affect the public identity of the skater because the skaters' reaction to them feeds back. This is a process in which we are all continually involved. Day to day life is bound up with the reproduction of social identities, groups, and social institutions. Human agency and social structure are in a relationship with each other, and it is the repetition of the acts of individual agents that reproduces the structure, but also causes the structure to change when social actors ignore, replace or reproduce them differently (see Giddens, 1984). This leads to the second thread that runs through the varied conversations quoted in this chapter: the relationship that the subculture has with aspects of wider society. Skateboard subculture is not a simplistic unit or block, with definite boundaries, which stands within, but is separate from, mainstream culture. It bleeds into other aspects of wider society. It, therefore, serves as a valuable reminder that subcultures are by no means separate from a larger social whole. Subcultures take particular objects from wider society, which are available to wider society, and use them in a particular stylistic manner that demonstrates their belonging to the subculture. External information is never just received, it is processed by social actors who also become the architects of their social environment (Widdicombe and Wooffitt, 1995). It is the style in which they do this that signals their belonging, not the object itself: 'every group that is at all functional must have a culture of its own that is somewhat similar to the cultures of other groups with whom it interacts. Such a
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group culture is not partial or miniature, it is a complete, full blown set of beliefs, knowledges, and ways for adjustment to the physical and social environment' (Lasswell, quoted in Arnold, 1970: 4).
At the same time as subcultures are externally promiscuous in this way, simplistic notions of subcultural purity are further compromised by the internal complexities of subcultural style. The common ‘taken for granted’ view of subcultural style as a tidy unit, with all elements seemingly hanging together the view with which this dissertation opened - is a gross simplification. Taking the example of skateboarding subculture, this article has explored and illustrated the reality of subcultural diversity. In the process, social identity has been shown to combine both the need for similarity (the basis for collectivity) and the need for individual distinctiveness. In short: all skaters look alike, and all skaters dress different. It is this tension between similarity and difference that is at the heart of the skateboarding subculture. Fashion and identity This article has illustrated how fundamental aspects of skateboarders' public selves are communicated to those around them through clothing, signifying both difference and similarity. The strong association between clothing and social identity goes well beyond the subculture of skateboarding. It is not only skateboarders who seek to construct meaningful identities, and these identities can be communicated, in part, by how the body is dressed. This can be true for any actor during interaction in the social world. What we wear sends signals to other people about ourselves and who we are. We all read signals from others, looking at what they wear in order to decide who we think they are. There are a variety of different signals or markers within the symbolic world of meanings and signs on which a social actor can draw to communicate a desired impression. This can be an individual identity: 'We are all offshoots of our society; but it is possible, especially in a complex interactional world like our modern one, for us to be individualised and idiosyncratic offshoots' (Collins, 1988: 46).
Alternatively, clothing can be used to signify belonging to a collectivity:
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'The physical and mental world, in short, becomes populated with objects that symbolise society. Internalised and carried around in the minds of individuals, these symbols become the steering mechanisms by which people recognise comembers' (Collins, 1998: 45).
Clothing can be used to communicate closeness to, or distance from other social actors; both purposes have been illustrated here. This article has focused on clothing. There are, of course, a number of crucially important aspects of social identity that are less transitory than what we choose to wear, namely gender, ethnicity, and class. Each of these is a major aspect of personal and social identity, and, for information, Cardiff’s skateboarding subculture is predominantly white and male. While, undoubtedly, this influenced the dress and style of the skateboarders that I interviewed, gender and ethnicity were beyond the scope of this limited study. The subculture of skateboarding is not well documented within sociology. It is an extraordinarily rich social and stylistic arena, which is constantly shifting and re-defining itself, drawing on new forces of influence and distinction. This study is located within a particular time and a specific locality, and by no means exhausts the potential of skateboarding subculture as an object of sociological enquiry. Relationships between skaters and the public and public authorities, for example, are fraught with significant theoretical and policy issues and an investigation of these on a future occasion would be opportune. More broadly, the examination of fashion and its relationship to the social actor encapsulates many of modern society’s tensions concerning social identity and consumerism. That the clothes which claim to express you - that make a statement about your identity - at the same time force you to bow to the market (O’Flinn, 1990) is an insight that, while adding to our understanding of the complex relationships between structure and agency, could further be developed. Consumerism and social identity are not only linked by clothing. Consumer goods, as a cultural resource, can be used as a form of expression in most areas of life, if not all. The opportunities to explore questions of social identity - not least those relating to gender, ethnicity and class - in connection with cultural consumption are virtually limitless. And this is to be welcomed.
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Notes 1. The three founding texts being Culture and Society (Williams, 1958), The Making of the English Working Class (Thompson, 1963) and The Uses of Literacy (Hoggart, 1957). The very disappointing, and very sudden, closure of the Birmingham University Centre for Cultural Studies in the summer of 2002 should also be noted here. 2. Trucks are the metal axles that attach the wheels of the skateboard to the deck. 3. This refers to buying trucks for his board made by a particular company, Independent. 4. The ‘indoor place’ referred to is a civic building on the outskirts of Cardiff centre. The building is designed with a large rim constructed around the edge on the first floor. On the outside, shelter can be taken underneath this rim. 5. The two respondents were dressed from the 'heavier' music scene and neither had been skating for longer than a year. Music influenced their own dress more so than skateboarding, and many times they stated that they dressed the way they did before they started skating. The mentioned Nike and Adidas are a reference to the hip-hop style skater.
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