Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Adventure and Contemporary Society

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Book cover Adventure and Society

  • 1214 Accesses

Abstract

After reading this chapter, you will be able to:

  • Understand broad concepts of agency and structure

  • Explain key concepts associated with late modernity

  • Understand key concepts that explain how adventure sports typically transform from positions of obscurity to the mainstream

  • Understand how the places where adventure practices occur are ‘sites of struggle’ for the participants

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 59.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 79.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    Every single member of the 823 admitted to the (British) Alpine Club between 1857 and 1890 were university-educated and from the upper-middle class (Isserman & Weaver, 2008).

  2. 2.

    Agents can act alone, of course, but as we see later, they can also work together through networks of people, and these can come in countless forms—from political groups to associations of mountaineering instructors.

Key Readings

  • Bauman, Z. (2007). Liquid times: Living in an age of uncertainty. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press (Chapter 1: Liquid modern life and its fears).

    Google Scholar 

  • Beames, S., & Brown, M. (2016). Adventurous learning: A pedagogy for a changing world. Abingdon, UK: Routledge (Chapter 3: Socio-cultural backdrop).

    Book  Google Scholar 

References

  • Atencio, M., Beal, B., & Wilson, C. (2009). The distinction of risk: Urban skateboarding, street habitus and the construction of hierarchical gender relations. Qualitative Research in Sport and Exercise, 1(1), 3–20.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Atencio, M., Beal, B., Wright, E. M., & McClain, Z. (2018). Moving boarders: Skateboarding and the changing landscape of urban youth sports. Fayetteville, AR: University of Arkansas Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Atkinson, M. (2013). The quest for excitement in parkour. In E. Pike & S. Beames (Eds.), Outdoor adventure and social theory (pp. 55–65). Abingdon, Oxford: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bauman, Z. (2007). Liquid times: Living in an age of uncertainty. Cambridge: Polity.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beal, B., & Weidman, L. (2003). Authenticity in the skateboarding world. In R. Rinehart & S. Sydnor (Eds.), To the extreme: Alternative sports inside and out (pp. 337–352). New York: SUNY Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beames, S., & Brown, M. (2014). Enough of Ronald and Mickey: Focusing on learning in outdoor education. Journal of Adventure Education and Outdoor Learning, 14(2), 118–131.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Beames, S., & Brown, M. (2017). Disneyization and the provision of leisure experiences. In K. Spracklen, B. Lashua, E. Sharpe, & S. Swain (Eds.), Palgrave handbook of leisure theory (pp. 855–871). London: Palgrave MacMillan.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Beames, S., & Telford, J. (2013). Pierre Bourdieu: Habitus, field, and capital in rock climbing. In E. Pike & S. Beames (Eds.), Outdoor adventure and social theory (pp. 77–87). London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beames, S., & Varley, P. (2013). Eat, play, shop: The disneyization of adventure. In S. Taylor, P. Varley, & T. Johnston (Eds.), Adventure tourism: Meanings, experience and learning (pp. 77–84). Abingdon, UK: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beck, U. (1992). Risk society: Towards a new modernity. London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bourdieu, P. (1977). Outline of a theory of practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Bourdieu, P. (1986). The forms of capital. In J. Richardson (Ed.), Handbook of theory of research for the sociology of education (pp. 241–258). Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bourdieu, P. (1989). Social space and symbolic power. Sociological Theory, 7(1), 14–25.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boyd, D. (2014). It’s complicated: The social lives of networked teens. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Castells, M. (2000). The rise of the network society (2nd ed.). Oxford: Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Coates, E., Clayton, B., & Humberstone, B. (2010). A battle for control: Exchanges of power in the subculture of snowboarding. Sport and Society, 13(7), 1082–1101.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Connolly, J., & Dolan, P. (2012). Re-theorizing the ‘structure-agency’ relationship: Figurational theory, organizational change and the Gaelic Athletic Association. Organization: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Organization, Theory and Society, 20(4), 491–511.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Elias, N. (1978). The civilizing process. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Elliot, A., & Urry, J. (2010). Mobile lives. Abingdon, UK: Routledge.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Furedi, F. (1997). The culture of fear: Risk taking and the morality of low expectations. London: Cassell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Giddens, A. (1991). Modernity and self identity. Cambridge: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gilman, P., & Gilman, L. (2001). The wildest dream: Mallory – His life and conflicting passions. London: Headline.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gramsci, A. (1999/1971). Selections from the prison notebooks of Antonio Gramsci (trans: Q. Hoare and G.N. Smith (Eds.)). London: Elecbook.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hearn, J. (2012). Theorizing power. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave MacMillan.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Isserman, M., & Weaver, S. (2008). Fallen giants: A history of Himalayan mountaineering from the age of the empire to the age of extremes. London: Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Loynes, C. (1998). Adventure in a bun. The Journal of Experimental Education, 21(1), 35–39.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lupton, D. (2013). Risk (2nd ed.). London: Routledge.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Lyotard, J. F. (1984). The postmodern condition: A report on knowledge. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press. (French original version 1979).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Macdonald, D., Kirk, D., Metzler, M., Nilges, L. M., Schempp, P., & Wright, J. (2002). It’s all very well, in theory: Theoretical perspectives and their applications in contemporary pedagogical research. Quest, 54(2), 133–156.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Marx, K., & Engels, F. (1848). Manifesto of the Communist Party.

    Google Scholar 

  • McCrindle, M. (2014). The ABC of XYZ. Bellavista, Australia: McCrindle Research.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ritzer, G. (1993). The McDonaldization of society: An investigation into the changing character of contemporary social life. London: Pine Forge Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ryall, E. (2013). Conceptual problems with performance enhancing technology in sport. Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplement, 73, 129–143.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Telford, J., & Beames, S. (2016). Bourdieu and alpine mountaineering: The distinction of high peaks, clean lines and pure style. In B. Humberstone, H. Prince, & K. Henderson (Eds.), Routledge international handbook of outdoor studies (pp. 482–490). Abingdon, UK: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thorpe, H. (2014). Transnational mobilities in action sport cultures (Migration, diasporas and citizenship). London: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thorpe, H., & Wheaton, B. (2011). ‘Generation X Games’, action sports and the Olympic Movement: Understanding the cultural politics of incorporation. Sociology, 45(5), 830–847.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tracey, J. (2013). Antonio Gramsci: Freestyle kayaking, hegemony, coercion, and consent. In E. Pike & S. Beames (Eds.), Outdoor adventure and social theory (pp. 45–54). Abingdon, UK: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • United Nations Committee on Human Rights. (2017). Global trends: Forced displacement in 2016. Geneva, Switzerland: UNHCR.

    Google Scholar 

  • Urquía, N. (2005). The re-branding of salsa in London’s dance clubs: How an ethnicised form of cultural capital was institutionalised. Leisure Studies, 24(4), 385–397.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Van Bottenburg, M., & Salome, L. (2010). The indoorisation of outdoor sports: An exploration of the rise of lifestyle sports in artificial settings. Leisure Studies, 29(2), 143–160.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Varley, P. (2013). Rationalization and new realms of the commodity form. In E. Pike & S. Beames (Eds.), Outdoor adventure and social theory (pp. 34–42). Abingdon, UK: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weber, M. (1922/1968). In G. Roth & C. Wittich (Eds.), Economy and society: An outline of interpretive sociology. Los Angeles: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wheaton, B. (2017). Subcultural formation and lifestyle sporting practices. In M. Silk, D. Andrew, & H. Thorpe (Eds.), Routledge handbook of physical cultural studies (pp. 102–110). London: Routledge.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Williams, R. (1977). Marxism and literature. Oxford: Open University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wright, J. (2004). Critical inquiry and problem-solving in physical education). In J. Wright, D. Macdonald, & L. Burrows (Eds.), Critical inquiry and problem-solving in physical education (pp. 19–31). London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK

    Simon Beames

  2. University of the Highlands and Islands, Inverness, UK

    Chris Mackie

  3. California State University East Bay, Hayward, CA, USA

    Matthew Atencio

Authors
  1. Simon Beames
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Chris Mackie
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Matthew Atencio
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Beames, S., Mackie, C., Atencio, M. (2019). Adventure and Contemporary Society. In: Adventure and Society. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96062-3_2

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96062-3_2

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-96061-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-96062-3

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation