Insurgent Play

Social Worlds of Urban Disruption

Duncan McDuie-Ra

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English

Anthem Press
08 July 2025

Urban communities; Political geography; Urban & municipal planning

Series: Anthem Studies in Urban Sociology

Insurgent Play: Social worlds of urban disruption explores play as a transgressive expression that counters the existing urban order (neoliberal, authoritarian, militarised).

Insurgent play is disruptive, yet through disruption it brings social worlds into being, undergirds global subcultures and overcomes hostile urban environments characterised by ever-diminishing spaces for free expression. Acts of insurgent play are claims on space lasting from brief moments to years, animating patches of the city designed for commercial, industrial and logistical imperatives. Even in public spaces designed for leisure and play, insurgent play brings different expressions at different speeds, transgressing designated uses and bodily expectations. Through insurgent play people find belonging in the city, especially for those excluded from other spaces based on race, class, sexuality and citizenship. As such, stories of insurgent play are stories of alternative ways of inhabiting cities stemming from the widespread human desire and need for play, for joy and for sociality.

Insurgent Play draws upon examples from street skateboarding. Street skateboarding disrupts the city in the pursuit of play, enlivens patches of space through temporary claims, and initiates encounters with authorisers, property owners and citizens gravid with hostility with instants of wonder. Insurgence is a way of being, and the desire for insurgent play cannot be placated by better urban planning or formal expertise. Nor will multiplying designated play spaces, creative precincts and 'flexible' public spaces stop people seeking out space to create their own worlds of disruption. The book makes four arguments. First, insurgent play is bodily expression that can challenge, disrupt and transgresses dominant ways of city-making. Second, insurgent play takes us to parts of the urban landscape that we might not otherwise go, politics we might not otherwise recognise and encounters we might otherwise overlook. Third, claims on the city made through insurgent play enliven urban space through transformative power. In this way, these claims territorialise patches of the built environment intended for other uses. Last, insurgent play space is generated from below, never above. Insurgent play shapes, and is shaped by, identities that position adherents in opposition to prevailing urban orders.

By: Duncan McDuie-Ra
Imprint: Anthem Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Volume: 1
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 153mm, Spine: 8mm
Weight: 170g
ISBN: 9781839993466
ISBN 10: 1839993464
Series: Anthem Studies in Urban Sociology
Pages: 118
Publication Date: 08 July 2025
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Figures; Acknowledgements; 1 Insurgent Play; 2 Play, Damage, Wounding; 3 Disruptive Repair; 4 Counterinsurgency; 5 Under the Flyover; Bibliography; Index

Duncan McDuie-Ra researches urban migration, urban conflict, urban culture, urban technology and urban play. He is the author of eight other books and 70+ articles and essays.

Reviews for Insurgent Play: Social Worlds of Urban Disruption

McDuie-Ra reveals play as a “world” of skills, tactics, materials, social codes, traditions, information systems, foresight and forbearance. Here, insurgency is about enacting movement, which requires amenable surfaces that generate a feeling beyond capture, even as it leaves traces everywhere. Through a series of accessible concepts skateboarding is rendered a world capable of being distributed across diverse geographies, even as it cannot be inhabited by all.’ — AbdouMaliq Simone, University of Sheffield, UK ‘This remarkable book goes beyond the current literature by focusing on how insurgent play creates a more inclusive environment, how disruptions can act as repairs and how these contestations test the limits of urban spaces and their governance.’ — Jeffrey Hou, PhD, FASLA, Professor and Head, Department of Architecture, National University of Singapore ‘McDuie-Ra introduces insurgent play both theoretically and ethnographically as a constellation of temporary, unplanned, unpredictable bodily appropriations of the city. Opposing surveillance and hostile design, insurgent play brings new life to existing places: sprouting from the middle of things, it enlivens urban interstices through irregular, fragmented, joyful precious moments.’ — Andrea Mubi Brighenti, Department of Sociology and Social Research, University of Trento, Italy