Ralph, LaurenceGe, Cherry2024-07-122026-09-282024-07-122026-09-282024-04-102024-07-12http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/dsp01t722hd15mhttps://theses-dissertations.princeton.edu/handle/88435/dsp01t722hd15mIn the social sciences, the literature on risk has largely been focused on the neoliberal bent with which we approach the concept. I want to complicate that picture by introducing the ethnographic reality of risk. By continuously engaging in risk-taking through their actions, my interlocutors turn that neoliberal discourse of risk on its head. Instead of youths ‘at-risk’, I argue that my interlocutors are instead youths risking their bodies in order to forge their own narratives - to engage with the process of ‘becoming’ that is, an expansion of self. At the same time, this ‘becoming’ through which my interlocutors grow in is only possible because of the familial space created in the circus environment at Trenton Circus Squad, where because of the uncertainty associated with the risk-taking process, a space of destabilization is normalized. This familial space, perceived through the lens of intimacy, provides a place where the results of trust and risk do not take on the bias of any foregone conclusions. As such, the ethnographic reality at TCS points to the potentiality inherent within the symbiotic relationship between trust and risk. And it is from this potentiality, I argue, that ‘becoming’ is made possible.application/pdfenPrinceton University Senior Theses