Holding back the beers: maintaining ‘youth’ identity within the British night-time leisure economy

Abstract

An expanding body of work on Britain's night-time alcohol-based leisure economy has acknowledged the importance of collective forms of alcohol consumption in the establishment and reinforcement of key aspects of both subjective and group youth identities. This research project has addressed the ways in which drinking behaviours and leisure characteristics usually applied to 18–25 year olds are retained and continue to structure the identities of older consumers of the night-time leisure experience. Field data suggest that in the absence of traditional forms of community and social order, the night-time economy now functions as the field upon which many people attempt to develop a sense of communitas and belonging. However, there is also crucial critical evidence to suggest that these consumers are essentially encouraged to heed the siren call of contemporary ideology by consistently reaffirming their commitment to consumer markets that often fail to yield the pleasures and freedoms associated with them. Not taking part in the commodified pleasures of the drinking strip can have a quite profound impact upon the individual, and the perceived freedoms of alcohol-fuelled hedonism often continue to draw the adult consumer towards social behaviours that act against the construction of stable adult identities.