Patrick Laviolette

An investigation into the increasing popularity of adventure sports like bungy jumping, surfing and parkour. Taking an ethnographic approach, the book examines what attracts humans to interact with extreme landscapes and the impact such interactions have on society as a whole, the individuals involved and the landscapes themselves. The book also addresses how best to reconcile enjoyment of adventure sports with a moral responsibility towards the environment.

Not a Hap-hazardous Sport

Extreme Landscapes of Leisure

Francisco Martínez

What does it mean to claim that something is broken? What is the connection between tinkering and innovation? And how much tolerance for failure do our societies have? Exploring some of the ways in which repair practices and perceptions of brokenness vary culturally, Repair, Brokenness, Breakthrough argues that repair is an attempt to extend the life of things as well as an answer to failures, gaps, wrongdoings and leftovers. The set of contributions illustrates the strong affective power hidden in situations of disrepair and repair; broken objects often bring strong emotions into play, but also energising reactions of creative action.

Ethnographic Responses

Repair, Brokenness, Breakthrough

The first English-language social science book to comprehensively explore hitchhiking in the contemporary era in the West, this volume covers a lot of ground—it goes to and fro, in an echo of the modus operandi of most hitchhiking journeys. As scarification, piercings, and tattoos move from the counter-culture to popular culture, hitchhiking has remained an activity apart. Yet, with the assistance of virtual platforms and through its ever-growing memorialisation in literature and the arts, hitchhiking persists into the 21st century, despite the many social anxieties surrounding it. The themes addressed here thus include: adventure; gender; fear and trust; freedom and existential travel; road and transport infrastructures; communities of protest and resistance; civic surveillance and risk ecologies.

Patrick Laviolette

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