Skateboarders are in a subculture of their own. By outward appearances, they are disorderly. They are not the squeaky-clean, wholesome looking athletes you'd find on American cereal boxes nor do they aspire to be that way. Instead, skateboarding is reflective of skateboarders themselves: it relies on improvisation and getting-by on limited resources. Skateboarding uses pervasive public space. It is not bound to a field, a court, or the posh comfort of a yoga studio. But, as Barton & Johns remind us, the "social event" of skateboarders using stairs, handrails and plant boxes as a make-do playground can easily be translated into a "social problem" depending on the lens through which it is viewed.

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