Neoliberal urbanism often draws critiques because it privatizes public space and excludes specific social groups whose interests are not in line with the development goals of local states and corporations. This article, through an exploration of the politics and discourses of urban skateboarding, suggests that this clear distinction, between entrepreneurialism and community–based place making, may fail to explain transformative changes occurring in public space today. Comparing two grassroots activist campaigns at the Brooklyn Banks in New York City (NYC) and West LA Courthouse in the city of Los Angeles (LA), this article explains the ways in which skateboarders leverage specific neoliberal ideologies to claim their right to these two settings. In both cases, skateboarders save spaces through entrepreneurial urban means that bolster neoliberal values while retaining the tactical nature of their activities. Although both activist movements pursue the common values of authenticity, entrepreneurship, and private funding, they employ different discourses to reclaim public space. The NYC skaters frame a security discourse, which ultimately limits their continual access to the Brooklyn Banks. The LA skate community, on the contrary, constructs a spontaneity discourse, characterized by creativity, conviviality, and civil society, successfully transforming the West LA Courthouse into a legalized skate plaza. Our findings suggest that skateboarding communities and their spatial activism are resilient enough to articulate different rationales and successfully fight to transform public spaces into urban commons. However, we argue that ‘the discourses’ matter significantly in the processes and outcomes of activist mobilizations occurring within neoliberalizing public space.

中文翻译：

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新自由化公共空间中的创造力，欢乐和公民社会：从纽约市到洛杉矶，滑板运动中的政治和言论不断变化

新自由主义的城市主义之所以经常引起批评，是因为它使公共空间私有化，并排除了其利益与地方政府和公司的发展目标不符的特定社会群体。本文通过对城市滑板运动的政治和话语的探讨，表明企业家精神与基于社区的场所营造之间的这种明显区别可能无法解释当今公共空间中发生的变革性变化。比较了纽约市布鲁克林银行（NYC）和洛杉矶市（LA）的西洛杉矶法院的两个基层激进主义者的运动，本文解释了滑板手如何利用特定的新自由主义意识形态来主张他们在这两种情况下的权利。在这两种情况下 滑板手通过具有企业家精神的城市手段节省空间，这些手段在维护其活动的战术性质的同时，提倡了新自由主义价值观。尽管两个激进运动都追求真实性，企业家精神和私人资金的共同价值，但它们采用不同的话语来夺回公共空间。纽约市的溜冰者设计了一个安全话题，这最终限制了他们继续进入布鲁克林银行的权限。相反，洛杉矶滑冰社区构建了以创造力，欢乐和公民社会为特征的自发性话语，从而成功地将西洛杉矶法院大楼改造成合法的滑冰广场。我们的研究结果表明，滑板社区及其空间活动能力具有足够的弹性，可以阐明不同的原理，并成功地将公共空间转变为城市公共空间。