Consumption and Community: The Subcultural Contexts of Disparate Marijuana Practices in Jam Band and Hip-Hop Scenes

Abstract

The use of marijuana has become a normative illicit practice within many youth subcultures. As such it remains important to identify how subcultures shape the nuances of their respective participants' marijuana consumption practices and how these practices shape social interaction patterns. This research highlights how different subcultural contexts influence interaction rituals surrounding marijuana consumption. Findings are based on twelve months of ethnographic fieldwork within the hip-hop and jam band scenes. We assess how the symbolic systems framing subcultural norms and values influence marijuana consumption practices and how these in turn reinforce the subcultural system. We examine the implications these practices have for producing varied levels of consumption and providing different experiences of community.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mark Pawson

MARK PAWSON , M.A., is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Sociology at the CUNY Graduate Center. He is also a project manager and ethnographer at the Center for HIV Educational Studies and Training in New York. His primary research interests focus on substance use and youth cultures.

Brian C. Kelly

BRIAN C. KELLY , Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at Purdue University. His research has primarily centered on drug use, sexual health, and youth cultures. His current research projects include work on prescription drug misuse among young adults, methamphetamine abuse and HIV risk in China, club drug use within nightlife scenes, and the health and well-being of adolescents in age-discordant relationships.