Edgework

This paper seeks to conceptualize the potential relationship between subjective well-being and risk-taking within 'risk-tourism' i.e. specific activities that involve the potential for physical injury and death and require participants to develop competencies with which to overcome the risks associated with those activities. Literature is reviewed in three fields of inquiry: subjective well-being, with specific reference to the interactions between wellbeing and tourism behavior, risk-taking in tourism and risk-tourism. The areas of interaction between risk-tourism and subjective well-being, emerging critical questions and potential areas of future inquiry are subsequently examined.

Статья опубликована в "Журнале социологии и социальной антропологии"  2014, № 1, стр. 139-154
В статье анализируется значение риска и неопределенности в жизни
участников арт-сообществ, объединяющих художников Санкт-Петербурга. Опираясь на эмпирические данные, собранные в ходе изучения четырех кейсов, и используя в качестве аналитической рамки концепцию «хождения по краю» С. Линга, авторы проводят параллели между любителями экстремальных практик и профессиональными художниками.
Как и экстремалы, художники зачастую рассматривают неопределенность как ценность, и их жизнь связана с многочисленными рисками. Однако авторы утверждают, что деятельность художников точнее описывает метафора не «края», а «гребня»: участники поля искусства должны создавать свои произведения, постоянно балансируя между их тривиальностью и понятностью для публик, между оригинальностью и маргинальностью. Членство в арт-сообществах помогает художникам управлять некоторыми рисками, порождаемыми высококонкурентным рынком актуального искусства, а также более эффективно справляться с финансовой, статусной и карьерной неопределенностью. Однако включение в арт-сообщества оборачивается новыми рисками, такими
как творческая зависимость от коллег, потеря аутентичного авторского стиля и маргинализация вместе с сообществом. Чтобы управлять рисками членства в арт-сообществах, художники должны сохранять равновесие между сильными и слабыми связями, однако необходимость
удерживать этот баланс приводит сообщества в состояние перманентного распада.

"

In an effort to elucidate a deep understanding of the experience of dangerous motorcycling behaviour we employ a practice theory perspective; drawing out connections between the practice, the consumption of objects, and the meanings surrounding both. Using the Biographical Narrative Interpretive Method (BNIM), we offer possible explanations as to why, in the face of troubling accident statistics, some motorcyclists continue to drive at excessive speeds. Narrative accounts portray dangerous motorcycling practice as autotelic, impulsive edgework, incorporating a strong connection between rider and machine, and embedded with symbolic, emotional values that cannot be accounted for by traditional rational choice models. Our findings allow for the potential of policy makers to address such motorcycling practice in ways more meaningful to those engaged in it."

In an effort to elucidate a deep understanding of the experience of dangerous motorcycling behaviour, we employ a practice theory perspective, drawing out connections between the practice, the consumption of objects, and the meanings surrounding both. Using the Biographical Narrative Interpretive Method (BNIM), we offer possible explanations as to why, in the face of troubling accident statistics, some motorcyclists continue to drive at excessive speeds. Narrative accounts portray dangerous motorcycling practice as autotelic, impulsive edgework, incorporating a strong connection between rider and machine, and embedded with symbolic, emotional values that cannot be accounted for by traditional rational choice models. Our findings allow for the potential of policymakers to address such motorcycling practice in ways more meaningful to those engaged in it.

This text is translation of the paper was published  in "The  Journal of Sociology and Social Anthropology" (Saint-Petersburg, Russia), 2014, # 1, pp.139-154. (Журнал социологии и социальной антропологии  № 1, 2014, стр.139-154)

This paper considers the meaning of risk and uncertainty for the participants of St. Petersburg’s art communities. In the course of data collection, the authors applied a wide range of field research techniques such as in-depth interviews, participant observation and qualitative analysis of texts. Basing on the empirical materials of four case studies and using the theoretical frame of edgework (S. Lyng), some parallels have been drawn between extreme sports lovers and professional artists. Like extreme sportsmen, artists often see uncertainty as a key value. However, the authors argue that it is not edge but rather ridge that metaphorically portrays the artists’ careers: artists are to produce creative products permanently balancing between triviality and intelligibility, originality and marginality. Community membership helps artists manage some of the risks generated by the highly competitive market of contemporary art in St. Petersburg and more effectively cope with financial, status and career uncertainties. However, this membership also gives rise to new risks such as strong dependence on colleagues, the loss of unique individual style or marginalization along with the whole community. To control these membership risks, the artists have to maintain equilibrium between strong and weak ties, but this balancing brings the communities into the state of permanent disintegration.

This article explores the emerging phenomenon of 'staged kidnapping', a consumer-oriented experience in which individuals voluntarily subject themselves to abduction and associated experiences of detention, deprivation, interrogation and degradation. We explore the staging, presentation and consumption of voluntary abduction through an analysis of the online marketing and reporting of the phenomenon, to consider the ways new consumerist trends alter traditional notions of hospitality. We analyse the phenomenon's emergence within the twin theoretical frames of Beck's 'risk society' thesis and Lyng's account of 'voluntary risk-taking' as a form of 'edgework'. We argue that the framing and appeal of such experiences can be fruitfully located as an element in the reflexive production of the post-traditional self, a process that requires subjects to confront and manage (materially or symbolically) the conditions of risk and uncertainty that characterize contemporary inhospitable lifeworlds.