Rising popularity of urban exploration on social media is leading to more injuries and deaths

2016-03-22T14:30:00-04:00

A rising number of daredevil stunts such as scaling skyscrapers and parachuting from tall structures is being fuelled by competition for online acclaim, according to “urban explorers”, who warn more people are dying as a result. The immense popularity of online videos of people climbing the world’s tallest buildings, including the London Shard, had turned urban exploration, which traditionally involves surreptitiously exploring the off-limits corners of towns and cities, into an extreme sport

Urban exploration, or "urbex," has a long and interesting history, involving clandestine networks of people sharing skills and knowledge of the infrastructure of cities. But, driven more by a desire for likes than exploration, people are increasingly getting themselves into dangerous situations and sometimes even killed, according to researchers.

For related content, check out some past coverage:

Bradley Garrett on the importance of gonzo journalism for understanding cities

2015-05-27T17:09:00-04:00

Understanding the nuances of city stories, and tracing those tensions, requires immersion and patience. Whether we are writing about police work, protests, squatting, free parties, banking or parkour, the best socially engaged journalism – like the best university research – is rooted in participation, spiked with empathy, and resists being reduced to spectacle fodder. As any war correspondent will tell you, immersion can also be dangerous...

Bradley Garrett recounts his own infiltration into urbex (urban exploration) communities, and provides a list of the "five most influential 'gonzo' ethnographies." If you aren't familiar with Garrett's work, be sure to check it out. In particular, Explore Everything: Place-Hacking the City is a must-read primer on sneaking into the secret corners of the city. In a way, urbex picks up where the Situationists left off, reimagining the urban environment as a giant, unending game board.

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Rising popularity of urban exploration on social media is leading to more injuries and deaths

Bradley Garrett on the importance of gonzo journalism for understanding cities