Edgework

Chaos, Order, and Collaboration: Toward a Feminist Conceptualization of Edgework

by Staci Newmahr

Stephen Lyng’s concept of edgework represents a crucial shift in understanding particular kinds of risk taking, as... more Stephen Lyng’s concept of edgework represents a crucial shift in understanding particular kinds of risk taking, as intrinsically and phenomenologically rewarding. Although it has been widely and usefully used since then, scholars have observed limitations in its applicability across class, race, and gender lines. A good deal of recent work has endeavored to address this problem. However, a critical feminist perspective reveals the levels on which this issue is not merely one of scope but a paradigmatic issue. I offer a deconstruction of the edgework concept in order to illustrate this, and an expansion of the model in order to render it more applicable for a wider range of thrill-seeking behaviors. Drawing on four years of ethnographic field work in an SM (sadomasochism) community, I provide an empirical example of the applicability of this amendment for the study of voluntary risk taking across gender boundaries.

Motorcycling edgework: A practice theory perspective

by Stephen Murphy

Journal of Marketing Management , Co-author Maurice Patterson

In an effort to elucidate a deep understanding of the experience of dangerous motorcycling behaviour we... more

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.

Positive Deviance, Edgework, and Wilderness Survival

by Daniel Harrison

This paper addresses the sociology of positive deviance, edgework and wilderness survival.  Positive deviance has... more This paper addresses the sociology of positive deviance, edgework and wilderness survival.  Positive deviance has emerged over the last three decades as a viable, if contentious, research paradigm.  This paper attempts to make positive deviance more intellectually robust, in part by relating the concept to the notion of edgework.  It claims that we should speak of positive deviance when, and only when, people engage in risky, rare, positive action that exceeds social expectations.  The utility of the argument is demonstrated by examining studies of wilderness survivors and the conditions under which they may be viewed as positive deviants.