Changing Drinking Styles in Denmark and Finland. Fragmentation of Male and Female Drinking Among Young Adults

Abstract

A traditional heavy intoxication-oriented drinking style, “heroic drinking,” is a central drinking practice in Denmark and Finland, especially among men. However, it seems that another drinking style leading to intoxication, “playful drinking,” has become more prevalent in Denmark as well as in Finland. Playful drinking is characterized by self-presentations in diverse forms of game situations in which you need to play with different aspects of social and bodily styles. We approach the positions of heroic drinking and playful drinking among young adults (between 17 and 23 years) in Denmark and Finland by analyzing how they discuss these two drinking styles in focus groups (N = 16).

RÈSUMÈ

Changer les manières de boire au Danemark et en Finlande. Fragmentation de la consommation d'alcool parmi les jeunes hommes et femmes adultes

La manière traditionnelle de consommer de l'alcool visant une intoxication, <<boire de manière héroïque>>, constitue une pratique courante de consommation d'alcool au Danemark et en Finlande, en particulier chez les hommes. Toutefois, il semble qu'une autre manière de boire débouchant aussi sur une intoxication, <<boire pour s'amuser>>, ait pris le dessus aussi bien au Danemark qu'en Finlande. La manière de <<boire pour s'amuser>> est caractérisée par des autoprésentations sous diverses formes dans des situations de jeux revêtant différents aspects de styles social et corporel. Nous abordons les positions de la consommation héroïque et ludique d'alcool parmi les jeunes adultes (âgés entre 17 et 23 ans) au Danemark et en Finlande, en analysant la manière dont ils discutent sur ces deux façons de boire dans les groupes de consommateurs (N = 16).

RESUMEN

Cambio en los hábitos de consumo de alcohol en Dinamarca y Finlandia. Fragmentación del consumo de varones y mujeres entre los adultos jóvenes

La tradicional forma de consumir alcohol en pos de una gran intoxicación etílica, el “consumo heroico,” representa un hábito de consumo central en Dinamarca y Finlandia, especialmente entre los varones jóvenes. En cualquier caso, parece que existe otra forma de consumo que persigue la intoxicación: “el consumo lúdico” ha ganado protagonismo tanto en Dinamarca como en Finlandia. El consumo lúdico se caracteriza por autopresentaciones en diversas formas de situaciones lúdicas en las que hay que jugar con diferentes aspectos de los estilos sociales y corporales. Nuestra aproximación al consumo de alcohol heroico y al lúdico entre adultos jóvenes (entre 17 y 23 años) en Dinamarca y Finlandia parte del análisis de cómo ellos debaten sobre ambas formas de consumo en grupos de debate (N = 16).

Keywords :

• alcohol
• youth
• young adults
• drinking styles
• intoxication
• gender
• social theory
• comparative sociology
• culture
• qualitative methods

THE AUTHORS

Jakob Demant (Ph.D., 2008, University of Copenhagen) is an assistant professor at the University of Aarhus, Denmark. He has published theoretical and empirical papers on the subject of the intersections of sexualities, alcohol, age, drugs, and gender, and he has worked with qualitative interviews in studies with adolescents on a number of subjects from boyband music to drinking and drug-taking practices. Since 2008, he has ventured into empirical mixed-method nightclub studies for an understanding of drug use among young adults in Denmark as part of a larger project of Danish youth and young adults’ illicit drug use founded by the Rockwool foundation. More recently, he has, in line with the perspective of cultural criminology, focused more on media in the understanding of illicit and legal substance use. He is a (co)author of over 30 articles, books, and book chapters on both theoretical and empirical issues in relation to primarily youth. In 2009, he was a driving force together with Dr. Kim Bloomfield for the 35th Annual Alcohol Epidemiology Symposium of the Kettil Bruun Society in Copenhagen.

Jukka Törrönen, with a Ph.D. in sociology, has a chair as a professor at the Centre for Social Research on Alcohol and Drugs (SoRAD) on social alcohol and drug research. He has had a long-term interest in alcohol and drug research, in theoretical sociology, and in qualitative methods. His recent and ongoing work has been focused on: (1) disorderly public drinking, moral regulation, and the new social and political control programs; (2) the restaurant/pub, social control, and young adults’ drinking cultures; (3) women, health, and substance use; as well as (4) changes in the cultural position of drinking. Recent publications include Törrönen, J. (2001). The concept of subject position in empirical social research. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 31(3), 313–330; Törrönen, J. (2002). Semiotic theory on qualitative interviewing with stimulus texts. Qualitative Research, 2(3), 343–362; Törrönen, J. (2003). On the road to serfdom? An analysis of Friedrich Hayek's socio-political manifesto as a pending narrative. Social Semiotics, 13(3), 305–320; Törrönen, J. (2004). Zero-tolerance policing, the media and a local community. Journal of Scandinavian Studies in Criminology and Crime Prevention, 5(1), 27–47; Törrönen, J., and Korander, T. (2005). Preventive policing and security plans. The reception of new crime prevention strategies in three Finnish cities. Journal of Scandinavian Studies in Criminology and Crime Prevention, 6(2), 106–127; Törrönen, J., and Maunu, A. (2007). Light transgressions and heavy sociability: Alcohol in young adult Finns’ narratives of a night out. Addiction Research and Theory, 15(4), 365–381; Törrönen, J., and Maunu, A. (2009). Reflexive self-talk and situated freedom in the context of sociability: An analysis of transgressive drinking in the diaries of young Finnish adults. European Societies, 11(3), 431–450.

Notes

1 The project “Changes in the cultural position of drinking” is directed by Jukka Törrönen, SoRAD, Stockholm University. The Finnish project group is placed in National Institute for Health and Welfare in Helsinki. The project group consists of Janne Härkönen, Heli Mustonen, Pia Mäkelä, Jenni Simonen, Inka Juslin, Christoffer Tigerstedt, and Elina Vismanen. The project is financed by the Academy of Finland (118426) and Swedish Council for Working Life and Social Research (2008-0658). The focus group material has been collected by Jenni Simonen, Christoffer Tigerstedt, and Jukka Törrönen.

2 The additional focus groups in Finland with other age groups could have helped to understand how age effects the participants’ interpretations of the drinking situations. This is however beyond the scope of this paper as well as it would rely on material only from the one country.

3 The project “Youth, Drugs and Alcohol” is directed by Margaretha Järvinen, Department of Sociology, University of Copenhagen. The project group consists of researcher, Ph.D., Jeanette Østergaard, Ph.D. scholar Signe Ravn, and Assistant Professor, Ph.D., Jakob Demant. The project is financed by the Rockwool foundation.

4 Juha Partanen (1992) suggests that, in Finland, drinking habits can be characterized as heroic drinking. Heroic drinking is described as an ancient and hard-headed cultural model of action that renews itself autonomously and repetitively in a mythical way all its own. Its roots are in a masculine drinking circle.

5 Wouters (2006) and Measham (2002) have used the concept of a controlled loss of control to describe this. Even though these concepts are very central, we however emphasize that it is important to highlight not only the controlling of the decontrolled but actually also to grasp the attraction of the decontrolled. The concept of chance tries to point exactly toward how the decontrolled can open up the situation toward possible moments of pleasure.

6 When the boys start to look upon themselves as more mature adults and in later years become more interested in gender games, their relation to heroic drinking changes. As the boys become older, they reserve the extreme forms of heroic drinking for special occasions at remote cottages or on fishing trips (Törrönen, 2008, p. 55). In these more private drinking situations, heroic drinking and its “heterogeneity” seem to continue to have vital functions for masculine drinking. By the archaic activities of vomiting, urinating, telling dirty jokes, and passing out, the young men can play the games of basic trust and safety nets among their male friends. At the same time, however, the primary drinking situation of the young men shifts from a rather private space to a public space. In our material, therefore, most of the boys and all of the girls see heroic drinking as a somewhat childish activity.