Looking back over 20 years of research into ‘parkour and urban space’

Parkour is a lifestyle sport that originated in the Parisian suburbs in the 1990s. It has sparked research in various fields, with studies examining either the activity itself or using it as a stage to discuss broader or relatively distinct topics. As no systematic review of the scientific literature on parkour has yet been conducted, and as parkour is considered as an urban sport, this paper provides a quantitative analysis of the provenance, authorship, themes, and conclusions of 107 papers focusing on the research theme of ‘Parkour and Urban Space’. Although the topic appears to generate less academic interest nowadays, our study reveals that sociological perspectives are prevalent, with a tendency to use parkour to study broader social phenomena rather than the activity itself. Additionally, we observe a linguistic and cultural ’endogamy’ in the references that authors draw on. Finally, we categorise seven lines of enquiry into three groups: the socio-spatial construction of the individual, inter-individual relationships, and societal norms; transformations in space analysis through parkour as a situated, playful, and interactive practice with space; and parkour as a philosophical object, which is less grounded in empirical research. Although our study exclusively compiles papers from the humanities field, further interdisciplinary work is suggested in addition to the existing natural sciences, technology, engineering and medicine research on parkour. Ultimately, parkour offers fresh perspectives on conventional research topics and provides practical insights into current and future urban planning trends.