Motorcycles, body and risk

The motorcyclists' social career

Bibliographic Data

ID2399158
AuthorsGabriel Jderu (0000-0002-1906-9433, University of Bucharest, Romania, corresponding author)
Year2015
Volume51
Issue2
Pages417-430
Publication date2015-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Sociology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1440-7833 • E-ISSN: 1741-2978
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/1440783312474081
OpenAlexW2066001703
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited29

In this article, I approach motorcycling as a learning process. The main concept used is that of the social career, as advanced by Erving Goffman and David Matza. I highlight the specific bodily practices and risks that occur in the successive stages of a motorcyclist's social career. Throughout their career as motorcyclists, riders learn how to manage successive risks. The riding body may be approached as a case of voluntary risk-taking, a structural factor identified in many contemporary societies. Motorcycling is thus similar to hang gliding, skydiving, scuba diving or rock climbing. The study is based on data gathered from the main online motorcycling forum in Romania, participant observation carried out among motorcyclists in Romania in 2008 and 2009, and conversations and interviews with motorcyclists. I suggest that the risk implied by using motorcycles depends on the stage that a person is at in his or her social career

Climbing · Political science · Public relations · Sociology · Adventure Sports and Sensation Seeking · Engineering · Geographies of human-animal interactions · Psychology · Recreation, Leisure, Wilderness Management · Social Psychology

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