Skateboarding and Religion

This book explores the ways in which religion is observed, performed, and organised in skateboard culture.

Drawing on scholarship from the sociology of religion and the cultural politics of lifestyle sports, this work combines ethnographic research with media analysis to argue that the rituals of skateboarding provide participants with a rich cultural canvas for emotional and spiritual engagement. Paul O'Connor contends that religious identification in skateboarding is set to increase as participants pursue ways to both control and engage meaningfully with an activity that has become an increasingly mainstream and institutionalised sport. Religion is explored through the themes of myth, celebrity, iconography, pilgrimage, evangelism, cults, and self-help.

Paul O'Connor is Adjunct Assistant Professor in Sociology at Lingnan University, Hong Kong, and holds an affiliation with the Faculty of Arts, Charles University, Prague. As a qualitative sociologist and veteran skateboarder, his research is focused on religion, ethnicity, and lifestyle sports.