Citation

Walton T, Shaw WS. Soc. Cult. Geogr. 2017; 18(6): 869-886.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/14649365.2016.1239755

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This article considers risk-taking associated with the popular leisure activity of beach going in Australia. It investigates the risk-taking proclivities and cultural protocols in Australian beach use which, to date, have received little research attention. Drawing on the testimonies of beachgoers, we provide a discussion on how risk can be both voluntary as well as accidental at the Australian beach. While accidental risk-taking can be attributed to a lack of beachscape safety or lack of hazard knowledge, it is often the result of peer, sociocultural and psychodynamic influences that result in the production and reproduction of a pervasive culture of risk-taking. This culture is explored via the influence of the enculturation of risk into Australian beach practices, the attenuation of safety perceptions among beachgoers, and the attraction to risky behaviours that affect those in the beach space. The reproduction of risk in Australian beach use and the feeling of attachment observed among research participants have been conceptualised as the embodied societal subject, as identified through geographic psychoanalysis. A psychoanalytic geographic interpretation of participant attitudes and beliefs concerning risk-taking and beach use has been used to theorise how the prevailing discourses and fantasies of Australian beach use shape this site-specific culture of risk.

Language: en

Keywords

Australian beach culture; cultura de playa australiana; culture de la plage australienne; geografía psicoanalítica; géographie psychanalytique; prise de risque; psychoanalytic geography; Risk-taking; toma de riesgos