Youth Cultures, Lifestyles and Social Class in Finnish Contexts

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to analyse young people’s cultural practices and style seeking by utilizing certain notions of a theory promoted in the 1970s at CCCS (the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies in Birmingham), and especially the notions of ‘new studies’ on social class that refer to Pierre Bourdieu’s concepts. The article takes as its focus the lifestyles of young people in certain localities in Finland. Although the qualitative data from 39 interviews were collected in the Finnish cities of Helsinki and Kajaani, the main focus in this article is on different localities in Helsinki (33 interviews). It is suggested that young people’s styles vary within locations and the formation of (life)styles takes place partly within groups, which are connected to the local culture (area, school) as well as to social class (family, school). I argue that no one can, will or is able to manifest any kind of style wherever they wish. One’s (life)style is attached to locality, class, gender and ethnicity.