Surfing Life: Surface, Substructure and the Commodification of the Sublime

by Mark Stranger

Overview

Surfing Life is a study of surfing and social change that also provides insights into other experience-based contemporary subcultures and the nature of the self and social formations in contemporary society. Making use of extensive empirical material to support innovative theoretical approaches to social change, this book offers an analysis of the relationship between embodied experience, culture and the economy. With its ground breaking theoretical contributions, and its foundation in an ethnographic study of surfing culture in locations across Australia, this volume will appeal not only to those interested in the social and cultural phenomenon of surfing, but also to anyone interested in the sociology of sport and leisure, the sociology of culture and consumption, risk-taking, subcultures and theories of contemporary social change.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780367602215
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	06/30/2020
Pages:	300
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

About the Author

Mark Stranger has taught Sociology at the University of Tasmania, Australia.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations vii

List of Figures ix

Acknowledgements xi

1 This Study of Surfing 1

This postmodern framework 3

An unorthodox ethnography 10

Outline in brief 13

2 Pleasure and Discipline: A Surfing History 17

A Hawaiian story 17

Surfing USA 22

Bronzed Aussies 25

Summary and discussion 42

3 Resistance and Incorporation: Contemporary Surfing Life 45

Subcultures in theory 45

Structural elements of the contemporary subculture 50

Summary and discussion 88

4 Risk, Self and Social Configurations 91

Surfing as a risk-taking leisure activity 91

Gender and risk-taking 100

Theorizing risk-taking 107

The nature of the thrill and its consequences for the self 122

The ecstatic experience and its implications for social formations 133

Summary and discussion 149

5 Fear, Desire and a Postmodern Sublime 153

Flow beyond challenge and risk 153

The surfing aesthetic and a postmodern sublime 158

Representations of the sublime 166

Aesthetics and ethics in the surfing subculture 178

Summary and discussion 184

6 Commodification, Reflexivity and Trust: The Surfing Culture Industry 187

The surfing culture industry: an overview 188

The Big Three and the surfing culture industry 190

Summary and discussion 210

7 Aestheticization and Sportization: Towards Synthesis 215

Bureaucratization and juridification 216

Synthesis and the sporting aesthetic 226

Summary and discussion 247

8 Conclusions 249

A few key points 250

Implications beyond the subculture 253

Appendix I Base Locations and their Characteristics 255

Appendix II Intensive Interviews: Interviewees and their Characteristics 257

References 259

Index 277

Editorial Reviews

’An exhilarating contribution to the sociology of leisure and sport. Stranger writes with real verve and insight. A marvellous book.’ Chris Rojek, Brunel University, UK 'Searching for the essence of the surfing experience and the nature of surfing culture, Surfing Life digs extraordinarily deep into social theory, philosophy and history. A thoughtful, sensitive, insightful and fruitful search, Surfing Life also exposes the corporate greed and professional sporting bureaucracies that threaten the joy of surfing.' Douglas Booth, University of Otago, New Zealand 'An important, unique and timely contribution to the growing academic as well as popular interest in surfing as a socio-cultural form and how it articulates with contemporary social change. Stranger not only lays bare the surfing culture, its industry and the relationship between them, but uses it as a fascinating exemplar of postmodern cultural processes, challenging theoretical orthodoxies about such contemporary social formations.' Belinda Wheaton, University of Brighton, UK 'Successfully subjecting his life as a surfer to insightful sociological analysis Mark Stranger has gone where few other analysts of sport cultures have ventured. His insights into risk taking, characterisation of the tribal social formations of surfers and analysis of the major players in the surfing industry and their conflicted relationship with the culture, provide an important model for future analyses of sporting cultures.' Peter Donnelly, University of Toronto, Canada 'Surfing Life is a serious academic book based on sound ethnographic research and appropriate theoretical analysis. It’s a bonus that it allows the reader a vicarious connection with world famous surfers who are quoted from interviews... In Surfing Life, Stranger takes us to conceptual places that allow us to understand the complexity of the surfing subculture in the context of its maturation and commodification. Surfing is still a leisure pursuit of i

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