This study analyzes CrossFit as a marketplace culture that articulates several key dimensions of reflexive modernization. Through this analysis, we illuminate a different set of theoretical relationships than have been addressed by previous accounts of physically challenging, risk-taking consumption practices. To provide analytic clarity, we first delineate the key differences between reflexive modernization and the two interpretive frameworks—the existential and neoliberal models—that have framed prior explanations of consumers’ proactive risk-taking. We then explicate the ways in which CrossFit’s marketplace culture shapes consumers’ normative understandings of risk and their corresponding identity goals. Rather than combatting modernist disenchantment (i.e., the existential model) or building human capital for entrepreneurial competitions (i.e., the neoliberal model), CrossFit enthusiasts understand risk-taking as a means to build their preparatory fitness for unknown contingencies and imminent threats. Our analysis bridges a theoretical chasm between studies analyzing consumers’ proactive risk-taking behavior and those addressing the feelings of anxiety and uncertainty induced by the threat of uncontrollable systemic risks.

本研究将 CrossFit 分析为一种市场文化，阐明了反思性现代化的几个关键维度。通过这种分析，我们阐明了一组与之前对身体具有挑战性、冒险的消费实践的描述不同的理论关系。为了提供清晰的分析，我们首先描述了反思性现代化与两种解释框架（存在主义和新自由主义模型）之间的主要区别，这两种解释框架构成了对消费者主动冒险行为的先前解释。然后，我们解释了 CrossFit 的市场文化如何塑造消费者对风险的规范理解及其相应的身份目标。而不是对抗现代主义的祛魅（即存在主义模式）或为创业竞争建立人力资本（即，新自由主义模式），CrossFit 爱好者将冒险理解为为未知突发事件和迫在眉睫的威胁建立准备能力的一种手段。我们的分析弥合了分析消费者主动冒险行为的研究与解决由无法控制的系统性风险威胁引起的焦虑和不确定感的研究之间的理论鸿沟。