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Social exclusion has developed as a term to refer to individuals within society who are excluded due to poverty or other economic factors. This paper discusses the fact that of the under-represented user of urban open spaces _ women, people from an ethnic minority background, disabled people, older people and younger people _ young people, and in particular teenagers are often perceived of as a problem in the urban context. This is particularly the case for skateboarders. In the USA skateboarders are increasingly being banned from city centres which have not been designed or are not managed for them _ they are increasingly being expected to skate in purpose built skate parks. This trend has spread to the UK where, particularly in some of the northern towns, skateboarding as an activity is being outlawed. Over a 13 year period skateboarders in the City of Sheffield, in particular, have been moved on from one favourite location to another. Does the skateboard provided for them satisfy their needs a n d make t h e m f e e l s o c i a l l y i n c l u d e d o r n o t ? Initially the term ‘social exclusion’ was used in France to describe people ‘who had slipped through the social insurance system, with the result that they were being ‘administratively excluded by the state’ (Burchardt, Le Grand and Piachaud, 1999). As the term ‘social exclusion’ was adopted across the European continent during the late 1990’s it was increasingly used to describe people at an economic disadvantage and 2 particularly those living in poverty. Many different definitions have been discussed, coupled with a debate about the complexity of a broader definition of social exclusion to include more than poverty. Thus for example Burchardt, Le Grand and Piachaud (1999) suggest that there is no one distinct group of people who are ‘socially excluded’, rather that individuals may be excluded in one of five dimensions. These dimensions are described as being consumption, savings, production, political and social. People may experience one or more than one of these dimensions and thus be socially excluded. However, this discussion is still somewhat dominated by economic factors, if not by poverty alone and a three point approach which begins Burchardt, Le Grand and Piachaud’s (1999) discussion is, perhaps, more helpful in developing a fuller understanding of a definition of social exclusion.