“We are not like those who/…/sit in the woods and drink”: The making of drinking spaces by youth

Birgitta Ander,Monika Wilińska

doi:10.1177/1473325020911681

Abstract

This article applies the concepts of place and space to understand youth and their engagement in risky behavior, such as drunkenness. It is based on the prolonged engagement with 23 underage youth coming from smaller municipalities in the south of Sweden. The study was comprised of semi-structured interviews, field visits, and observations at sites relevant for youths. In the stories narrated by youth, drunkenness is no longer an ad hoc activity conducted somewhere at the margins of society. The construction of drinking spaces was accomplished through highly managed, monitored, and organized practices, such as sending out invitations in advance, planning how much alcohol to drink, designating drivers, and securing transport means. Crucial to this was that spaces were products of relations existing between various youth, with no adults present. Spaces of drinking changed as those who participated in their construction changed. In addition, certain rules and codes of conduct (e.g. taking care of friends who drunk too much) were enforced to assure that the constructed spaces provided a sense of safety and enabled having fun. We conclude this article by arguing that a focus on place and space brings forward vital aspects in understanding the role of transforming party spaces that would otherwise remain obscure to social work knowledge and practice.

Highlights

This article applies the concepts of place and space to understand youth and their engagement in risky behavior, such as drunkenness
In explaining what type of considerations are taken into account, young people identify home as attractive drinking space because it is “cheaper than going to a pub,” “it is possible to put down a beer when moving around,” “it is smoothest,” and contrary to the outdoor public places “one does not need to freeze.”
We conclude in this article that a focus on place and space brings forward the actualities and everyday practices constituting the social worlds of youth that would otherwise remain obscure to social work knowledge and practice

Summary

Introduction

This article applies the concepts of place and space to understand youth and their engagement in risky behavior, such as drunkenness. Studies examining drinking places and space advance the perspective of young people making active and conscious choices about their alcohol drinking Demant and Landolt, 2014; Jayne et al, 2008; Roberts et al, 2012; Wilkinson, 2017) Following this line of reasoning, in this article, we lean on the sociological theorizations of place and space that approach places and spaces from the perspective of social processes and relations. Our aim is to bring forward the perspective of space to come closer to the ways in which young people engage in socalled risky behaviors, such as, drinking. The question leading this study is: how do young people create their own spaces for drinking alcohol?

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Conclusion