Flying free : Risk and regulation in recreational flying trapeze
Journal article
Alexander, Amanda. (2024). Flying free : Risk and regulation in recreational flying trapeze. Australian Feminist Law Journal. 50(2), pp. 207-230. https://doi.org/10.1080/13200968.2024.2412349
Authors | Alexander, Amanda |
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Abstract | Legal and regulatory theory has been fascinated by the relationship between law and other forms of regulation in a differentiated society. While some scholars have pointed out the benefits of local regulation, especially when managing the risks of modern society, others have seen regulation in Foucauldian terms as discipline, the dark underside of liberal society. Law, in a Foucauldian approach, is usually understood as another form of constraint. There have, however, been recent suggestions that an enabling law could contain possibilities for openness and agency – much like Foucault’s concept of ‘technologies of the self’. At the same time, sociologists have used the technologies of the self to describe voluntary risk-taking, or ‘edgework’, as a form of escape from the disciplinary society. In this article, I examine these possibilities by investigating the operation of law and regulatory techniques in flying trapeze. Recreational flying trapeze is the kind of risky activity that was facilitated by the enabling law of the 2002 tort reforms. Recreational flyers, who are usually women, appear to experience a moment of freedom. Yet flyers are subject to local regulations and their own practice of self-regulation. As such, this activity provides a practical opportunity for examining the intersection of law, regulation, and the technologies of the self, and considering what they mean for the possibilities and limitations of freedom. |
Keywords | regulatory theory; risk; Foucault; regulation; torts law; legal reform; sports law |
Year | 2024 |
Journal | Australian Feminist Law Journal |
Journal citation | 50 (2), pp. 207-230 |
Publisher | Routledge |
ISSN | 2204-0064 |
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) | https://doi.org/10.1080/13200968.2024.2412349 |
Scopus EID | 2-s2.0-105003395474 |
Open access | Published as ‘gold’ (paid) open access |
Page range | 207-230 |
Publisher's version | License File Access Level Open |
Output status | Published |
Publication dates | |
Online | 05 Nov 2024 |
Publication process dates | |
Deposited | 11 Jun 2025 |
Additional information | © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent. |
https://acuresearchbank.acu.edu.au/item/91z01/flying-free-risk-and-regulation-in-recreational-flying-trapeze
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Publisher's version
OA_Alexander_2024_Flying_free_Risk_and_regulation_in.pdf | |
License: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 | |
File access level: Open |
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