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

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.

No Time for a ‘Time Out’? Managing Time around (Non)Drinking

“…Brendan has a group of friends with whom he often studies after school and on weekends, and he describes most of his socialising as opportunistic and unplanned. This contrasts with the organisation associated with drinking events like parties, which require coordination and synchronisation with friends (Ander and Wilińska, 2020). For Brendan, there is a clear blurring between work and free time as he talks about studying with friends as a social activity and his irregular attendance at parties.…”

Adolescent smoking, alcohol use, inebriation, and use of narcotics during the Covid-19 pandemic

“…Substance use can be a maladaptive strategy to cope with difficult situations [ 28 ], which is also evident during the Covid-19 pandemic [ 4 ]. In adolescence, substance use often goes hand in hand with peer interactions, parties, and places where no grownups are present [ 10 ]. This seems to be the case even during the Covid-19 pandemic, as increased engagement with peers, despite recommendations of social distancing, seems to be one of the risk factors for increases in substance use during the pandemic.…”

“…In Sweden alone, 42% of 15-year-olds and 69% of 17-year-olds report having consumed alcohol during the last twelve months [ 9 ]. Although some experimentation with substances could be seen as a natural part of growing up [ 10 ], adolescent substance use may lead to more serious mental health problems including depression or substance abuse disorders [ 11 ]. In that sense, more attention to adolescent substance use and the factors that may explain such use are needed.…”

Eliminating Stereotypes: Villages as Desirable Spaces for Partying among Spanish Youth☆

“…Nevertheless, we have established that rural young people imagine and inhabit spaces of partying and establish their own limits in the processes of negotiating their identities, as Ander and Wilińska (2020) have shown. The practices that the participants recognize carrying out therefore call into question and challenge the traditional representations of rurality, revealing young people's contradictions and ambivalences within the context of global and local hybridization.…”