A Social Psychological Analysis of Voluntary Risk Taking

Assignment Task

Case Study

This review will examine Stephen Lyng’s (1990) paper; Edgework: A Social Psychological Analysis of Voluntary Risk Taking. First, I will lay out Lyng’s primary claims before assessing the paper’s relevance in the wider field of criminology. Finally, I will attempt to look at any possible critiques of the paper. The overall goal of this review is to offer a comprehensive understanding of the paper, its main points, its relevance, and a critical summary in one document. The paper primarily concerns itself with the idea of edgework, and the Marx/Mead synthesis through which edgework can attempt to be explained. Lyng explains that edgework, a concept partially developed by journalist Hunter S Thompson, is the idea that some risk-based activities work the edge of our realities.

These activities traditionally push some form of metaphorical line within our lives, be it between sanity and insanity, consciousness and unconsciousness, freedom and incarceration or, in the majority of cases, life and death. As Lyng points out, edgework is based around the idea of order vs disorder. Because of this, many edge workers have a seeming obsession with the idea of their ‘skill’, a passion for controlling what others see as uncontrollable. Lyng then goes on to explain how in reality the situations edgeworkers often place themselves in are, to a large degree, uncontrollable. However, the participants believe they are in control due to the feelings of transcendence commonly brought on by edgework.

Lyng mentions how this sensation is seemingly very similar to Csikszentmihalyi’s idea of ‘flow’ and Goffman’s idea of ‘action’ however it is the level of seeming transcendence and the feelings of a ‘hyper-reality’ achieved which separates edgework from these ideas. Once he has developed this idea of edgework, Lyng moves on to attempt to explain such behaviour in a way which combines both on macro and micro levels, and sociological and psychological theoretical viewpoints. He does this by using the Marx/Mead framework. This framework seeks to explain edgework and risk-taking behaviour through a combination of stress, over socialisation and unmet needs. Marx/Mead also allows us the first critical look at edgework. Plenty of research has been done on how stress causes risk taking behaviour, however this is the first framework where socio-politically caused stress is observed as an underlying factor.

Lyng explains how the points at which Marx and Mead diverge and converge in their thinking are extremely important, allowing each other to fill gaps in the theory in a complementary rather than contradictory way. The primary concern of this framework is with spontaneity and constraint. Both Marx and Mead agree that spontaneity only exists in the face of constraint. One can only be impulsive once one has something to lose, once shelter, food, water etc has been established. Impulsivity then exists once the risk of losing such has asserted itself. This extends to socialisation. Over socialisation can make us feel as though we have no control over our social world, especially when edgeworkers see how much control they seemingly have over their lives during edgework. People may find comfort in the danger of edgework, their lack of control and danger in their everyday lives can be felt to be reclaimed as the edgeworker controls the danger emitted from the situations they place themselves in. Modern society is also said to further cause this want for seemingly controllable danger. Edgeworkers often extend the idea of their ‘skill’ past basic ‘skill’ and into the realm of possessing an inherent survival instinct within themselves. Many want to be ‘survivors’ but feel their lives are threatened and their chances of survival controlled by multiple unstoppable, unpredictable, and indistinguishable threats such as toxic chemicals in their drinking water or nuclear war.

Marx’s ideas of the workers alienation from their work and the feelings of becoming a part in a machine that they manifest also support this outlook. The article’s relevance is clear to see from the outset. As Lyng mentions, up until edgework there has been no thoroughly sociological explanation of risk taking. Whilst fields such as risk analysis have produced a large amount of literature and data on risk in general, there has been little to no real work done on voluntary risk taking. Those fields which have looked at voluntary risk taking tend to operate on an exclusively macro or micro scale, leading to issues with compatibility of theories between fields. Before edgework, risk taking was seen from a much more psychological perspective, attempting to explain individuals’ behaviour through stress and personal motives. However, edgework combines this outlook with a more macro/sociological perspective, attempting to balance the two scales of vision into one comprehensive explanatory theory. This new perspective was revolutionary, building on top of Hunter S Thompsons work in a more refined and universally applicable way. Such realisations and theoretical reorientations have led to a notable shift in the way we look at risk taking. The copious number of articles, books and essays expanding on Lyng’s work demonstrate this very clearly. Edgework in general is a topic that permeates popular culture and society, with people enjoying the simple act of observing edgework through things like extreme sport competitions or media representations of those living on the fringes of society.

It is arguable that the theorisation of edgework gave way to an entire new wave of journalism, with popular journalists such as Louis Theroux making a name for themselves through the ethnographic study of those living on the fringe. Whether this is primarily down to Hunter S Thompson’s work or Lyng’s theorisation of edgework is up for debate, however edgework as a concept’s prevalence in society is very clear. As criminologists this means there is plenty of data to be collected, coded, and studied surrounding edgework, something criminologists have obviously done on a very large scale. Yung’s work is extremely valuable, being the first offer of a truly comprehensive explanation of voluntary risk-taking. Whilst, as mentioned later, it is perhaps not fully generalisable to all forms of voluntary risk taking, it is still an important piece of work which attempts to explain the rise in popular of such acts which we have experienced over the years, even if only partially.

The paper does, however, present some inconsistencies and weaknesses. Whilst there is a large concentration on extreme sports like skydiving, there is little to no mention of activities which could be considered edgework but are not necessarily explained by the edgework framework. Activities such as graffiti writing are a good example of such exemptions. Whilst graffiti writing is most definitely a risk-taking activity, the risk is not necessarily the driving motive of such behaviour, traditionally it is simply a passion for a specific artistic medium. Of course, some graffiti writers could care less about what their tag looks like and instead are driven by the need to go places they shouldn’t, this would most likely fall under edgework. However, this is not universal, if it was then graffiti would be exclusively seen on extremely dangerous or risky to access areas, instead we commonly see graffiti in areas where barely anyone would ever see it. The overarching weakness here is that there are things which ‘push the line’ whilst ‘pushing the line’ may not necessarily be the driving force for the activity. The idea of edge workers seeking to experience ‘hyper-reality’ and control is one that is, in my opinion, also up for debate.

The individual who takes a copious amount of a psychedelic substance is pushing the line between sanity and insanity, and in some cases life and death, however they are experiencing the opposite of hyper-reality and control. The entire motivation is to escape reality and lose control. This therefore negates, in some cases, the idea of edge workers seeking a more ‘real’ reality. Similar logic can be applied to BDSM practitioners. Such practitioners are most definitely pushing a sexual, social, and cultural line, as well as in some cases the line between life and death. However, there is a large emphasis on roleplay in such communities, the escaping of reality into a new identity, and therefore the reduction of reality and the movement towards the realisation of fantasy. Of course, some may say that the person they become during such activities is closer to who they feel they really are without the constrictions of society, and in such cases the edgework perspective applies appropriately.

These two issues demonstrate how, whilst possibly applying to a wide range of risk- taking activities, edgework theory is not a catch all explanation for risk taking on the whole. Lyng makes it clear early in the article that edgework does not apply to all risk taking, however even the range of activities which he implies fall under edgework are not fully explained by this paper. It should be noted however that the downfall of this paper is its relative lack of universality, and not in its theoretical approach which, when applied to the correct activities, seems to explain a particular type of risk-taking adeptly. To conclude, this review has explained Lyng’s idea of edgework and its links to the Marx/Mead framework. Edgework can be considered to be the pushing of various lines at the edges of society with the Marx/Mead framework seeking to explain such behaviour through issues such as stress combined with over socialisation and a general feeling of lack of control in society. I have also demonstrated the papers relevance, with voluntary risk- taking previously only understood through the psychological perspective of stress and the

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