Abstract
Emerging studies on private security work in Britain's night-time economy explore important sociological themes such as masculinities and violence. Contributing rich ethnography to this literature, and in furthering an embodied sociology, this paper describes the gendered construction of competency among 'bouncers' or door supervisors within the context of their potentially violent work. Centrally, it explores the door supervisors' variable bodily capital (comprising body build and acquiredt echniqueso f the body) alongsiden ormativel imits to their violence. Here physicality is central to the practicalitieso f doorwork, risk managemenat nd the embodimento f dominanta nd subordinatem asculinities.W ithin doorwork culture, embodied typifications such as 'hard men', 'shop boys' and others ( eg, 'bullies' and 'nutters')a rer elatedt o assessmentosf possiblev iolencea gainstd oorstaff,t he delineationo f (flexible) boundariesfo r their own (in)appropriatev iolencea gainst' problematic'c ustomersa nd the constructiono f competenitd entity. Besidesc ontributing empirical data to the literature this paperu nderscoresth e integrativep otential of embodimentf or social scientistsa nd urges policy makerst o appreciatet he degree to which (potential) violence is embodied in the night-time economy.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Crime, Criminal Justice and Masculinities |
| Publisher | Taylor and Francis |
| Pages | 313-334 |
| Number of pages | 22 |
| ISBN (Electronic) | 9781351570671 |
| ISBN (Print) | 9780754627401 |
| Publication status | Published - 5 Jul 2017 |