Young people, drinking and social class. Mainstream and counterculture in the everyday practice of Danish adolescents

Abstract

Analytical concepts such as ‘bounded consumption’ or ‘controlled loss of control’ have been applied to characterise contemporary youth intoxication. This article argues that this kind of cultural diagnosis benefits from being related to a focus on differences in social class. It is shown that in order to fully understand differences in the drinking and partying practices of young people, such practices must be related to the youngsters’ general life and values, especially aspects such as rule-setting and school culture. Moreover, such practices including drinking attitudes are used by young people to construct social class-related identities: mainstream youngsters continually confirm their taken-for-granted normality, and mainstream breakers resist the mainstream hegemonic (school) culture which usually defies them. In conclusion, bounded consumption, corresponding with contemporary ideals of self-realisation, mostly seems to be a mainstream practice. For mainstream breakers unbounded intoxication practices can be observed and analysed as part of a counterculture. The study draws on five months of fieldwork and 24 qualitative focus-group interviews with pupils attending ninth grade (14–16 years of age) and their parents in a provincial Danish school.

Keywords:

• youth culture
• alcohol
• social class
• schooling

Acknowledgements

I am grateful for the work done by Anne Østergård.