Logics of practice in the ‘risk environment’

Abstract

This paper explores the salience of the work of Pierre Bourdieu for theorising young men's experience of risk and drugs within a working class community in the North East of England identified by official discourses as a ‘risk environment.’ First, the concepts of field, habitus and practice are introduced. We then discuss the usefulness of these concepts for understanding diversity and contradiction in drug use, risk calculation and everyday life amongst a sample of young men. Data is presented from focus groups and individual interviews taken from a 3-year qualitative study of a ‘risk community,’ identified with reference to the incidence of crime, high unemployment and prevalence of illegal drug use in an area regeneration project. Social-structural determinants of dispositions towards drug use risk and risky behaviours are identified and the role of ‘risk environment’ highlighted. By combining theory with a rigorous empiricism, Bourdieu's work can be useful when exploring ‘risk environments’ and the concept of habitus can enhance understandings of young men's dispositions towards risk and risk taking.