In her new book, which entitles Magical realist sociologies of belonging and becoming, R.Tzanelli explores the traditional tenets of Western imaginaries through the tensional intersection between genres and the poetics of mobilities.The concept of “edgework” occupies a central position in explaining high?risk leisure practices (like sports) and risk?aversion.To put simply, risk?takers (edge workers) develop a sense of self?realization which allows them to survive in the confrontation of risks.The question of whether the figure of risk seems immanent to the social structure (in Beck), edgework (in Lyng′s thinking) signals to a re?signification in the horizons of chaos and order.At a closer look, the concept of social order (in the Hobbesian analogism) comes from a much deeper imperial discourse which is certainly based on a powerful metaphor –if not a dichotomy?; the genealogy of western rationality punctuates as the sweeping renunciation to the egoist (primitive) drives, which are naturally inherited in the human mind, to confer the Leviathan the monopoly of force, ensuring in this way a durable peace.By thinking the dialectics between rationality and irrationality equates to believe that only the civilized European law brings light to the dark tribal mind.Not surprisingly, the same applies to the rejection of traditional sociologists to explore leisure practices which are often considered na?ve or superficial.Her position associates to a critical discussion that revolves from aesthetics and technology to postmodern tourism consumption.Readers will see how this argument resonates repeatedly in the chapters that form the present editorial project.
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