Between Individual and Collective Actions: The Introduction of Innovations in the Social World of Climbing

• Authors: Anna Kacperczyk
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

This article, which is based upon the findings of a seven-year research project concerning the social world of climbing, discusses climbing as an organized social practice that possesses a strong historical dimension and collective character. It examines the relation between individual participants and that social world as a whole, and it accepts that an individual’s personal life may be inscribed in the development and formation of that world in two ways. These are 1) a given social world imposes the behavioral patterns, normative rules, institutional schemes of actions, and careers upon participants that characterize their identities and actions; and 2) the actions of an individual participant trigger significant change in that world. I am particularly interested in those unique situations in which when a participant induces a change that affects a given social world (or a sub-world) as a whole, and discuss two examples of this relation, namely, the history of designing and creating climbing equipment, and setting new standards of climbing performance. Briefly stated, innovative solutions are born in conjunction with particular climbing actions that are either promoted or hindered depending on whether or not the vision of the primary activity associated with those solutions was accepted by the majority of participants. The dynamics and transformations of the social world in question thus rely upon the activities of exceptional individuals who, as pioneers, innovators, and visionaries, attain mastery in performing the primary activity of that world and set new standards of performance for others. A new mode of acting-in order to be collectively adopted-must be accepted as both valuable and morally justified by all participants.

Keywords

EN

Social Worlds; Climbing; Mountaineering; Innovations; Individual; Collective Actions; Technology; Performance

• Publisher: Uniwersytet Łódzki. Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego
• Journal: Qualitative Sociology Review
• Year: 2019
• Volume: 15
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 106-131

Dates

published

2019-05-24

Contributors

author

Anna Kacperczyk

• University of Lodz, Poland Between Individual and Collective

References

• Ament, Pat. 1977. Master of Rocks. The Biography of John Gill. Boulder, CO: Alpine House Publishing.
• Ardito, Stefano. 2001. Wielkie górskie przygody [The Big Mountain Adventures]. Warsaw: Muza S.A.
• Becker, Howard S. 1974. “Art as Collective Action.” American Sociological Review 39(6):167-776.
• Becker, Howard S. 1986. Doing Things Together. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press.
• Beckwith, Christian. 2005. “Editor’s Note.” Alpinist 12:8.
• Blakeney, Thomas Sydney and D. F. O. Dangar. 1960. “Oscar Eckenstein, 1859-1921.” Alpine Journal 65(300):62-79.
• Cicourel, Aaron V. 1975. “Discourse and Text: Cognitive and Linguistic Processes in Studies of Social Structure.” Versus 12:33-83.
• Clarke, Adele E. 1991. “Social Worlds/Arena Theory as Organizational Theory.” Pp. 119-158 in Social Organization and Social Process: Essays in Honor of Anselm Strauss, edited by David R. Maines. Hawthorne, NY: Aldine de Gruyter.
• Club Alpin Français with the collaboration of the Groupe de Haute Montagne (GHM). 1934. Manuel d’Alpinisme. Tome II Partie Technique. Chambéry: Librairie Dardel.
• Collins, Randall. 1981. “On the Microfoundations of Macrosociology.” The American Journal of Sociology 86(5):984-1014.
• Cunningham, C. D. and W. de W. Abney. 1888. The Pioneers of the Alps. Boston: Estes and Lauriat.
• Czarnowski, Stefan. 1956. Dzieła, Tom 1: Studia z historii kultury [Oeuvres, Volume 1: Studies in the History of Culture]. Edited by Nina Assorodobraj and Stanisław Ossowski. Warsaw: Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe.
• Dent, Clinton Thomas. 1892. Mountaineering. London: Longmans, Green and Co.
• Dobrowolski, Adam, and Jerzy Warteresiewicz. 1971. „Technika wspinania [Climbing Technique].” Pp. 85-106 in Alpinizm, edited by Maciej Popko. Warsaw: Wydawnictwo Sport i Turystyka.
• Drożdż, Piotr. 2010. “Zapiski na marginesie reklam wspinaczkowych. Część I. Lata sześćdziesiąte oraz i połowa siedemdziesiątych XX wieku [Margin Notes on Mountaineering Advertisements. Part I. 60s and 70s of the XX Century].” Góry 6(193):36-41.
• Fine, Gary Alan. 1991. “On the Macrofoundations of Microsociology: Constraint and the Exterior Reality of Structure.” Sociological Quarterly 32(2):161-177.
• Fiorio, Cesare and Carlo Ratti. 1889. I Pericoli dell’Alpinismo e Norme per Evitarli [Dangers Associated with Alpinism and How to Avoid Them]. Torino: Club Alpino Italiano.
• Garfinkel, Harold. 1967. Studies in Ethnomethodology. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
• Gill, John P. 1969. “The Art of Bouldering.” American Alpine Journal 16(43):355-359.
• Gill, John. no date. A Golden Age of American Bouldering. Retrieved March 13, 2019 (http://www128.pair.com/r3d4k7/HomePage2.html).
• Gill, John. no date. Origins of Bouldering: The Early Days of the Sport. Retrieved March 13, 2019 (http://www128.pair.com/r3d4k7/Bouldering_History1.0.html).
• Glaser, Barney G. and Anselm L. Strauss. 1967. The Discovery of Grounded Theory: Strategies for Qualitative Research. Chicago: Aldine.
• Godfrey, Bob and Dudley Chelton. 1977. Climb! Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
• Gridlestone, Arthur Gilbert. 1870. The High Alps without Guides: Being a Narrative of Adventures in Switzerland. London: Longmans, Green, and Co.
• Hajdukiewicz, Jerzy. 1998. “Dzieje alpinizmu. Część 1” [The History of Mountaineering. Part 1]. Góry i Alpinizm 4:34-40.
• Harrer, Heinrich. 1998. The White Spider. New York: Tarcher-Putnam Trade.
• “History of Crampons Timeline.” Climbing 226, November 13, 2003.
• John Gill Interview. no date. Retrieved March 13, 2019 (http://www.theshortspan.com/features/johngill.htm).
• Jouty, Sylvian and Hubert Odier. 2007. Leksykon alpinizmu [Dictionary of Alpinism]. Warsaw: Muza S.A.
• Kacperczyk, Anna. 2012. “Badacz i jego ciało w procesie zbierania i analizowania danych – na przykładzie badań nad społecznym światem wspinaczki [The Researcher’s Body in the Process of Data Gathering and Analysis-The Case of Ethnographic Study on Social World of Climbing].” Przegląd Socjologii Jakościowej 8(2):32-63.
• Kacperczyk, Anna. 2013. “Praca nad emocjami jako element aktywności górskiej i wspinaczkowej [Working on Emotions as Part of Climbing and Mountaineering].” Przegląd Socjologii Jakościowej 9(2):70-103.
• Kacperczyk, Anna. 2016. Społeczne światy. Teoria – empiria – metody badań. Na przykładzie społecznego świata wspinaczki [Social Worlds. Theory, Methods, Empirical Research. An Example of the Social World of Climbing]. Lodz: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego.
• Kiełkowscy, Małgorzata and Jan, (eds.). 2003. Wielka Encyklopedia Gór i Alpinizmu. Tom I. Wprowadzenie [The Great Encyclopedia of Mountains and Mountaineering. Volume I. Introduction]. Katowice: Wydawnictwo Stapis.
• Kiełkowscy, Małgorzata and Jan, (eds.). 2013. Wielka Encyklopedia Gór i Alpinizmu. Tom VI. Ludzie gór [The Great Encyclopedia of Mountains and Mountaineering. Volume VI. People of the Mountains]. Katowice: Wydawnictwo Stapis.
• Klein, Kerwin. 2010. “The Last Amateur.”. Retrieved March 13, 2019 (http://alpinehistory.com/).
• Konecki, Krzysztof T. 2000. Studia z metodologii badan jakościowych. Teoria ugruntowana [Studies in Qualitative Methodology. Grounded Theory]. Warsaw: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN.
• Korczak, Piotr. 2009. “Przeciw tradycji [Against the Tradition].” A/Zero 16.
• Linton, Ralph. 1936. The Study of Man: An Introduction. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.
• Mitchell, Richard G., Jr. 1983. Mountain Experience: The Psychology and Sociology of Adventure. Chicago, London: University of Chicago Press.
• Mummery, Albert Frederic. 1895. My Climbs in the Alps and Caucasus. London: T. Fisher Unwin; New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons.
• Pagel, David. 2000. “Great Innovations. The Evolution of Climbing Gear.” Climbing 192:120-131.
• Ratzel, Friedrich. 1921. Anthropogeographie. Teil 2. Stuttgart: Verlag von J. Engelhorns Nachfolgern.
• Rogers, Everett M. 1983. Diffusion of Innovations. New York: Free Press.
• Roszkowska, Ewa. 2007. Alpinizm europejski 1919-1939. Ludzie –tendencje – osiągnięcia [European Mountaineering 1919-1939. People –Tendencies – Achievements]. Cracow: AWF, Studia i Monografie 39.
• Schütz, Alfred. 1962. “On Multiple Realities.” Pp. 207-259 in Collected Papers I. The Problem of Social Reality. Hague, Boston, London: Martinus Nijhoff.
• Shibutani, Tamotsu. 1955. “Reference Groups as Perspectives.” American Journal of Sociology 60(6):562-569.
• Sonelski, Wacław. 1986. “Bouldering.” Bularz, Winters 1984/85, 1985/86:42-44.
• Sonelski, Wacław and Krzysztof Sas-Nowosielski. 2002. Wspinaczka sportowa. Zagadnienia wybrane [The Sport Climbing. Selected Subjects]. Katowice: Wydawnictwo Akademii Wychowania Fizycznego.
• Strabo. 1924. The Geography of Strabo. Edited by H. L. Jones. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann.
• Strauss, Anselm L. 1978. “A Social Worlds Perspective.” Pp. 119-128 in Studies in Symbolic Interaction, edited by Norman Denzin. Greenwich: JAI Press.
• Strauss, Anselm L. 1993. Continual Permutations of Action. New York: Aldine de Gruyter.
• The History of the Grivel Company. no date. Retrieved April 23, 2019 (http://www.grivel.com/inc/read_more_crampons.php).
• Thomas, William I. 1928. “The Methodology of Behavior Study.” Pp. 553-576 The Child in America: Behavior Problems and Programs, edited by William I. Thomas and Dorothy S. Thomas. New York: A. A. Knopf.
• Whymper, Edward. 1871. Scrambles amongst the Alps in the Years 1860-1869. London: John Murray.
• Young, Goeffrey Winthrop, (ed.). 1920. Mountain Craft. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons.
• Zsigmondy, Emil. 1885. Die Gefahren der Alpen: Praktishe Winke für Bergsteiger [Dangers of the Alps: Hints for Alpinists]. Leipzig: P. Frohberg.

Identifiers

DOI

10.18778/1733-8077.15.2.08