Up in the Air: A qualitative study of gender and voluntary risk

Seminar abstract

The thesis aims to extend the theory of edgework to examine the social, cultural and structural characteristics of high-risk leisure consumption amongst women.

As a growing leisure phenomenon in the UK, aerial dance provides an ideal context for exploring why women are increasingly seeking risk within their leisure.

Edgework theory aims to connect individual risk-taking behaviour with macros and micro structural forces whilst attempting to make connections between psychological and physiological factors that influence risk-taking.

to date, the research on voluntary risk-taking has almost exclusively focused on the experiences of man and masculinity, producing a theory that marginalises the experiences of women, femininity and non-heteronormative genders. 

Therefore, this research aims to uncover and incorporate the experiences of women into a retheorisation of edgework from a feminist perspective, and to highlight the additional risk that women negotiate and manage on account of their gender.

This presentation will focus on the research methods and adaptation made to the research due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as some of the initial findings.

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Speaker bio

Georgie Rider is currently in the second year of her PhD in Management at the Essex Business School.

Her supervisors are Dr Stephen Murphy, Professor Melissa Tyler and Dr Sophie Hales.

Her research interests are in risk-taking, focusing particularly on the social, cultural and structural characteristics that influence women's experience of risk-taking.

Georgie's thesis is a qualitative investigation into the high-risk taking experiences of aerial performers, using a form of photo elicitation with semi-structured interviews and is funded by SeNSS.