Resistance on the Rocks: Climbing as a Channel of Struggle and Belonging

• In Event: Cultural Criminology 1: Youth Subcultures, Identities & Resistance

Abstract

This presentation explores how mountaineering and climbing have served as acts of resistance and expressions of belonging in three distinct socio-political contexts: the UK’s climbing community under Thatcher’s regime, the Bolivian Cholita climbers, and the climbing communities in Palestine and Ukraine. Drawing from critical and cultural criminology, as well as theoretical discussions on resistance, exclusion, and the physicality (embodiment) of suffering, this analysis examines how marginalised or oppressed groups have transformed climbing into a means of navigating hardship and asserting identity. By engaging with climbing as both a literal and symbolic form of struggle, the presentation highlights how physical endurance, risk-taking, and communal solidarity have provided spaces of resistance against dominant structures of power and exclusion. Through these cases, this paper therefore offers a broader reflection on the intersections of sport, politics, and social justice.

Author

• Marilena Drymioti, the University of Porto, Centre for Interdisciplinary Research on Justice (CIJ)