Cigarettes, snus and status: differences in lifestyle of different tobacco user groups in Norway

ABSTRACT

During the last decades smoking has been marginalised. Current tobacco policy is characterised by a continuous denormalisation of all forms of tobacco consumption. Yet, many people still use tobacco. This article highlights a possible cultural explanation for this: different tobacco products and uses are included in lifestyles of different social status and prestige, and vary in legitimacy. Using nationally representative data of the Norwegian adult population and drawing conceptually and methodologically on Bourdieu’s cultural sociology, I show that differences in socio-cultural practices (including tobacco use) are manifested in a structured ‘space of lifestyles’, homologous to the structure of the objective ‘space of social positions’. The contents of the various lifestyles (as identified by multiple correspondence analysis) inform the cultural distinctions associated with tobacco use.

KEYWORDS:

• Smoking
• smokeless tobacco
• lifestyle
• distinction

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Admittedly, the point of occasional smoking does not statistically contribute to the axes above average, but is still included here – as the only exception – because it is of interest to the problem.

2. Even if some occasional smokers may be former daily smokers moving towards a smoke-free life, occasional smoking is not a common transitionary step in processes to quit daily smoking, which usually happens ‘cold turkey’.