The Village Pub and Young People's Drinking Practices in the Countryside

Abstract

This paper explores the ways in which young people in rural areas experience their identity through their drinking practices. This research is founded on a close ethnography of three pubs and explores the significance given by young men and women to their discursive leisure and drinking practices and the extent to which these practices lead to inclusionary and/or exclusionary experiences. Through understanding identity formation as a contingent process, subject to socially produced alteration, this paper teases apart the different lived experiences of rural young people by arguing that much of their behaviour in pub(lic) and private space(s) can be seen in terms of acts of spectacle, compliance and challenge to disciplinary frameworks. This is illustrated though ethnographic case study examples and discussion on how young people employ various embodied strategies to move between spaces to experiment with alcohol. Through shedding light on drinking practices, this research reveals how this experimentation affects their sense of belonging in the countryside.