From Edgework to Edgeworking: The Interplay of Risk and the Life Course
Abstract
This conceptual article adopts a life course perspective to reframe edgework as ‘edgeworking’: an ongoing negotiation of risks that reflects developmental, socio-ecological and temporal-historical adjustments throughout human life. In contrast to static and universalistic conceptualisations of edgework that characterise voluntary risk-taking as siloed, rarefied and self-edifying practices, we draw attention to the myriad transitions, turning points, structural changes and timing of life events that put individuals on or close to various ‘edges’ as they skilfully cope, regain a sense of control and help themselves or others. Drawing upon illustrative observations from the broader sociological literature, we identify several novel dimensions of edgeworking: porosity, surrogacy & proxy, and legacy. Using these dimensions, we complicate the assumption of voluntarism that sits at the heart of edgework theory and argue that volition as it pertains to risk-taking is rarely clear-cut but is more often a highly contingent outcome of human development and vicissitude.
Metadata is indexed. Open-access discovery has not completed for this record yet.
No local PDF is available.
GROBID Extracted text; discontinued.
This text is generated from TEI extraction for accessibility, search, and TTS. Formulas, tables, figures, page layout, and references may not perfectly match the original PDF.
No accessible text representation is available. The text extraction service has been discontinued for the time being. If you require this service, for accessibility or any other reason, please submit an issue/request on this page.
Metadata
Issues
No public issues have been filed for this DOI.
Submit an issue
Record history
| When | Event | Field | Old | New |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-06-18 19:37:53.011249+00:00 | identifier_assigned | DSEID | DSEID-001-1179033 |