Description
Reading Assignment 5
Labeling, Resistance, and Edgework
Introduction, Tammy L. Anderson /
Beyond Mead: The Societal Reaction to Deviance, Edwin W. Lemert /
Edgework: A Social Psychological Analysis of Voluntary Risk Taking, Stephen Lyng /
Resistance as Edgework in Violent Intimate Relationships of Drug-Involved Women, Rajah Valli /
Connections: Labeling, Resistance and Edgework through Parkour, John J. Brent, Critical Thinking Questions /
Deliverable Length: 2-3 pages
Answer two questions:
1. Discuss Lyng’s concept of edgework (pp. 220-226), broken down into the following parts: edgework activities; edgework skills; edgework sensations.
2. What do you think is the most important contribution of edgework as a model of voluntary risk-taking?
3. Rajah expands the concept of edgework as risk-taking into the area of resistance to violence and control in the intimate relationship. Evaluate the success of this theoretical expansion regarding risk thresholds and the rewards of resistance as well as examples of edgework resistance (pp. 234-240).
4. According to Brent the activity of parkour (i.e., free-running) is at once an emerging popular culture component and also a deviant label. Critique the apparent conflict of this emerging activity through the related concepts of resistance and edgework. Do you think parkour will become more or less popular in the near future?
