Youth drinking and social class

1. Youth drinking and social class Torsten Kolind: Centre for Alcohol and Drug Research

2. Focus: An understanding of Danish Youth’s different drinking practises • Relating drinking and partying to other areas of the lives of the young • Analytical focus on cultural capital and counter-culture

3. The drinking culture of Danish youth is special • They start early, often before or during 9th grade • They drink a lot • Intoxication is often the explicit aim

4. Current research have neglected a focus on social class • Only little focus on structural constraints. Instead focus on individual risk and intoxication strategies • ‘New culture of intoxication’ characterised by ‘bounded consumption’ – is only a valid characteristic of some young

5. Social class • Cultural capital (Bourdieu): accumulation of education and knowledge, tastes, preferences, ’sense’. But also the practice of creating distinct social identities • Anthropological perspective: inductively outline and compare the characteristics of different groups cultural capital

6. Method • Three 9th grade classes in a minor provincial school in Jutland (Denmark) • 5 month of fieldwork during 1 school year: 2005-2006 • 38 qualitative focus group interviews with pupils (24) and parents (14)

7. Analysis – threeareas of comparison Mainstream youngsters and mainstream breakers (analytical groups) A) Rule setting B) School C) Drinking and partying

8. A: RulesFocus is on the communication of rules Mainstream – concerted communication • Reflect extensively on rules: seeing rules from own, parents’ and societal perspective • Meta-communicate: rules are open-ended guidelines, young are co-producers, they interpret unspoken elements of rules Mainstream breakers - the accomplishment of natural growth • Operating with directives rather than persuading children with reasoning • Defined, non-negotiable • Not an area for minute reflection • CASE: parent-agreement

9. B: School & timehaving enough or to little cultural capital Mainstream • School important for further education and for doing well in life • School important for nurturing social relations • Competent in the school culture; had enough cultural capital: school culture reflect mainstream values Time • responsible for planning and filling up time with meaningful activity and creating self-identity Mainstream breakers • School not important in life and for the future • Not central in keeping up social relations • Incompetent in school culture; lacked cultural capital Time • Fatalistic. Not planning. Time not to same extend something to be invested in developing self-identity

10. C: Drinking & partying and riskpatternsContinue along the lines outlined above Mainstream • Construct and perceive themselves as normal: • Those who drink too little • Those who drink too much/the wrong way • Risk perception: • Develop own harm reducing practices • Bounded consumption / controlled loss of control / • Part of a self-reflexive project Mainstream breakers • Create counter culture by rejecting mainstream values • Fighting • Defending oneself • Extreme drinking • Risk perception: • Unbounded risk taking • Risk do not contribute to the narrative of the self but to counter culture

11. Conclusion 1)partying and drinking must be understood in relation to a broader context of the adolescence’s life

12. Conclusion 2)Culturalcapital + Cultural capital (mainstream youth) • Controlled loss of control • Self-reflection • Planning • Feeling normal • Recognize societal health ideals • Master school culture • Co-produce family rules - Cultural capital (mainstream breakers) • Unbounded consumption • Counter culture • Fatalistic, ad hoc / repetition • Feeling different • Societal health ideals irrelevant • Slight mastering of school culture • Rules are non-negotiable