%0 Journal Article
%T Beyond the youth culture: Understanding middle
%A Paul O¡¯Connor
%J International Review for the Sociology of Sport
%@ 1461-7218
%D 2018
%R 10.1177/1012690217691780
%X Responding to the call of Wheaton to discuss the position of older participants in lifestyle sports, this research presents an analysis of the experiences of middle-aged skateboarders. Through qualitative interviews, ethnographic observation, and discourse analysis of skateboard media, skateboarding is revealed to be an integral part of the biographies and identities of middle-aged skateboarders. These accounts challenge the imaging of skateboarding as a youth culture and indicate that age and time have an important currency to skateboarders. The value of age is not confined to middle-aged skateboarders but is also observable in skateboard media which corresponds with the values held more broadly in skateboard culture. The concept of temporal capital is proposed as a way to make sense of the experiences of middle-aged skateboarders, highlighting how time is at once a path to subcultural authenticity, but also a resource to be managed and scheduled for their continued engagement in skateboarding
%K Ageing
%K lifestyle sports
%K middle-age
%K skateboarding
%K subculture
%K temporal capital
%K youth culture
%U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1012690217691780