Youth-Driven Tactics of Public Space Appropriation in Hanoi: The Case of Skateboarding and Parkour

Starting in the 2000s, there has been a rise in youth-led appropriation of spaces in Hanoi, Vietnam. Through case studies of skateboarders traceurs (practitioners of parkour) in two of the city’s formal public, we explore and analyze the tactics deployed by these young urbanites claim a part of the characteristically overcrowded and socio-politically public spaces of the Vietnamese capital. These case studies show, by seeking to access public spaces for their new activities, skaters and have had to confront multiple sets of rules, imposed by not only state, but also corporate actors and resident-driven surveillance. We that skateboarders and traceurs deal with these forms of control largely small-scale, non-ideological, and non-confrontational tactics. As result, these youth practices have become normalized in Hanoi’s public. These findings broaden the discourses on everyday urbanism and -political transformations in post-socialist urban contexts, and shed on the ways in which contemporary youths engage with the city.