Rock-climbing Communities of Practice: Physical and Digital Encounters

Unexplored previously by scholars, neoliberal values are manifested into social norms through alternative cultures which intend to 'liberate' from the operations of everyday life. The study of the social behaviour of rock-climbers, and how they are operated by media artefacts such as documentaries and vlogs remains undeveloped. In doing so, it is important to investigate how new media contributes towards cultural governance and social behaviour. From this perspective, the concept of neoliberalism is more than just a tool of social-economic control. To develop a critical account of Foucault (2008) and Beck's (1991) work, the study suggests that neoliberalism controls social behaviour through the universal fear of risk in modern society. Human activity is therefore organised through neoliberalism's individualised entrepreneurship. Through this, human groups naturally resist society's structural organisation by cultivating their own unique way of living. Csikzentmihalyi's (1990) concept of flow has an explanatory power that demonstrates how climbers are able to immerse themselves in moments of non-thinking. Through this, climbers push the boundaries of their physical capability by confronting fear through in-depth focus. Finally, the study argues that 'neoliberal competition' is deeply embedded into modern human behaviour, even within alternative sporting cultures such as rock-climbing.