The Counter Culture on the Move
A Field Study of Youth Tourists in Amsterdam
Paul ten Have*
Introduction
The purpose o f this p ap er is to give some im pressions and interpretations
concerning the ‘trek ’ of masses o f young tourists to A m sterdam during each
summer the last few years. M y d a ta com e prim arily from the sum m er of 1971,
when several studies of you th tou rists were conducted. Aside from the local
importance these phenom ena m ay have, I thin k their interest lies in the light
they can throw on the developm ent and possibilities o f w hat one likes to call
The C ounter C ulture and on the m any variations a co n fro n tation with The
Old C ulture can take.
There are m any, m any people who visit A m sterdam as tourists each sum m er.
Those tourists w ho are betw een 15 and 30, travelling w ithout their parents,
are called ‘youth tourists’. M any o f them d o n ’t live a norm al, established,
‘bourgeois’ life. The anti-bourgeois life style of this pop u latio n is accentuated
during their vacations a n d /o r when they are away from their hom e country
for a longer period of tim e. They dress differently, w ear their hair longer, use
inexpensive m eans o f tran sp o rtatio n , living and recreation, and, in general,
behave differently from the ways followed by the m ajority o f the settled popu­
lation or even the ‘norm al’ tourists. This draw s the atten tio n of m any people,
and o f the m edia. It irritates som e people. A nd it presents m any problem s
for the local authorities: w here do they p u t them , which rules do they rein­
force and in which will they behave tolerantly, w hat facilities do they create.
‘ W etenschappelijk m edew erker aa n h et Sociologisch In stitu u t van de U niversiteit van A m ster­
dam. Hij stu d eerd e sociologie aa n dezelfde U niversiteit. P roefschrift o v e r‘A n d ers leven’ in vo o r­
bereiding. W erk t aa n d e beoefening van en de tra in in g in ‘interpretatieve sociologie’.
297
O n the one hand this is connected w ith a general ‘Y outh Problem ’, on the
other it is a seasonal affair. W ill it stay like this, will it grow, will it diminish?
M any o f these ‘tou rists’ are ‘n om ads’ really, an d m any decide to stay, to
settle in A m sterdam . . .
This stream of youths grew especially strong in the late sixties, from ’67 on­
w ard. T he image th a t dom inated th e issue in the public m ind at th a t tim e was
the ‘D am ’, a big square in the centre of the city, where, facing the R oyal P al­
ace, the N ational M on u m en t for the com m em oration of the victims of
W orld W ar II becam e increasingly the m eeting and gathering place fo r w hat
were called ‘the hippies’ o r less friendly the ‘longhaired lazy scum ’.
Increasingly people began to sleep here, especially in the w arm sum m er of
1970. T here were com plaints (pollution and stealing) and riots (M ariners and
local gangsters beating up the dirty hippies). By the end of A ugust sleeping
outside was forbidden in the area, w hich gave rise to violent riots. In 1971 the
D am was filled everyday as it was in ’70, but it was used only as a m eeting and
gathering place. T he sleep-function, and p art of meeting and gathering func­
tion as well, were tak en over by ‘the P a rk ’ (V ondelpark). T his park is the big­
gest park near the centre, where thousands slept in the open air and m any
m ore gathered in the daytim e. So the P ark becam e the dom inate image, at­
tracting m any a curious eye and generating m any feverish im aginations of
lust and crim e. ‘Looking a t the hippies’ becam e a favorite S unday afternoon
pastim e and reporters from all over the w orld cam e to inform their custo­
mers of this curious happening.
The youth-tourist-scene w asn’t lim ited to these two m agical areas. M any
slept en m asse in the so-called Sleep-ins, in Y outh H ostels and Y outh H otels,
in occupied buildings, in boats o r in the places of new o r old friends and ac­
quaintances. They visited recreational centres fo r young people, or especially
fo r young tourists, like the P aradiso, the M ilky W ay, Studio 7, the M edita­
tion centre the K osm os, o r a teahouse in the catholic Mozes and A aron
church. They w alked th ro u g h th e streets of the inner-city, looking around,
m aking music, begging, shopping som etim es ‘loosely’, weird, som etim es
filthy, always carrying the m ysterious image of ‘drugs’.
As I said, the phenom ena generated by this ‘trek’ to ‘the m agical centre’,
(as A m sterdam has often been called since the times of Provo) are problem atic
for the local authorities. T he public, as 1 will explain later, is divided, but
m ostly very interested: ‘the P a rk ’ was a favorite topic of conversation. W hat
do they do? Why? Is it good or bad; o r mixed? Should they be driven out or
welcomed? S ho u ld the authorities install facilities, for sleeping, recreation,
aid; how m uch, w ith w hat effect, etc.? W hatever the local problem s and
298
decisions, the m ost telling fact for an outsider is th a t these phenom ena have
been possible in this m anner, on such a scale, in this place, and are met
with such ‘tolerance’ (relatively) from authorities and public.
Sources o f data and som e quantitative impressions
In order to be able to suggest som e interp retatio n s of these phenom ena 1 will
present som e d ata on the people concerned, followed by a short sketch of de­
velopm ents during the sum m er of 1971. These d ata com e from various sour­
ces. There were three research projects operative during th a t sum m er in con­
nection with ‘Y outh T ourism ’. T he first was an interview-survey, financed by
the m unicipality, the questionnaire being developed by a com m ittee of ‘ex­
perts’ and ‘bureaucrats’, and the field w ork being done by a M arket Research
Bureau (V eldkam p M arktonderzoek NV) using part-tim e student-inter­
viewers, N = 1351.
The second, also paid by the m unicipality, was a participant observation
study with five fieldw orkers fo r the whole season and three fieldw orkers only
incidentally. I was involved in this study as a ‘supervisor’ and as ed ito r/ w riter
of the report. T hird was a ‘consum er-oriented’ research during one week by a
team of ‘am ateu rs’ gathered aro u n d the ‘u n d erg ro u n d ’ bi-weekly A LO H A . I
also used several reports by project-w orkers, d ata from jou rnalistic reports
and first- and second-hand know ledge concerning the p reparation fo r the
summer o f 1972. A lthough m ost d ata and some interpretations were taken
from the w ork o f others, the responsibility fo r the paper is mine alone.
It is difficult to get a good idea of the to tal num ber of persons who have been
there. Only the num bers of nights spent can be guessed, so th at people
staying, for exam ple, 30 days were counted 30 times. F rom the two m ost typi­
cal sleeping places we have for the ‘Sleep-ins’: M ay 8,527; Ju n e 14,314; July
25,324; A ugust 42,747; Septem ber 1,638; T otal 100,550 in 1971 (1970:
82,998); by nationality (counted twice each week): G erm any 29%, USA 16%,
France 9%, N etherlands 8%, Italy 8%, Britain 7%, C an ad a 2,5%, Belgium
2.1%, Sw eden 1.6%, D enm ark 0.9%.
F or the P a rk we depend on guesses m ade alm ost every m orning by the p o ­
lice: Ju n e 3,762; Ju ly 30,660; A ugust 15,360; and the first half o f Septem ber
1,670; the to p -co u n t being 2000 for one night, the m eans fo r the period m enti­
oned: 125, 989, 495 and 119, and the to tal of sleepers counted: 49,780, total
mean 541. F rom the survey I will cite only a few ‘facts’, since the validity of
299
this study is rath er questionable. T he m odal age of the respondents was 19-20,
accounting for 30% in the P ark ,th e Sleep-ins and the cam pings. In the Youth
H ostels the age was higher (m odal age 21-22) and still higher in the Y outh H o ­
tels (m odal age 23-25). A round one-third is of the fem ale sex, less in the P ark
(27%) and m ore in the Y outh H otels (42%). A ccording to nationality the divi­
sion is as follows: U SA 27%, G erm any 17.7%, Britain 10%, N etherlands 9%,
■France 7.9%, Italy 7.6%, S candinavian countries 5.9%, others 14.8%. G er­
m ans an d Italians are m ore frequently found in Sleep-ins (28% and 12%),
French in the P ark (15%) and A m ericans in the Y outh H otels (54%). T he so­
cio-econom ic status of the respondents is higher th an the general population,
the highest categories are found twice as m uch. M ost tourists w ho respond a t­
tend schools (around 30%) o r universities (aro u n d 30%); aro u n d 10% had in­
dustrial and an o th er 10% clerical jo b s. Irregular w orkers and non-w orkers
were unevenly distributed in the different sleeping places getting a m axim um
of 20 and 10% respectively in V ondelpark. The length o f staying in A m ster­
dam was clearly longer th an th at o f ‘norm al’ tourists, although it is n o t possi­
ble, from the d ata at hand, to judge how m uch. A third (P a rk 51%, Sleep-ins
42%) had spent less th a n seven and a half guilders the day before. A bout half
o f the respondents lived w ith their parents; aro u n d 80% called their relation­
ship with parents ‘good’ o r ‘reasonable’.
The w eather durin g the sum m er o f ’71 was in general quite nice; w arm er
and less wet than usual. W hen sleeping outside aro u n d D am square was for­
bidden in A ugust 1970 there were already som e people who had experim ent­
ed with sleeping in V ondelpark. V ondelpark was already in the process o f de­
veloping into a centre for local hippies and foreign workers: T urks, M oroc­
cans. D uring weekends significant num bers of local hippies would come to
the park to sit on the grass, sm oke hash and play music, while the foreigners
played their own music and sat o n the grass. All this gave the park a ‘sweet’
image for ‘alternative’ people. In the spring o f ’71 an experienced youth w ork­
er, Piet Riemens, suggested th at the city install som e facilities in the park,
nam ely a small recreation centre and an aid centre. In haste and in an im pro­
vised m anner these were set up. H ow ever, the facilities created by the city
were inadequate to accom m odate the num ber o f youth tourists w ho descend­
ed upon A m sterdam . N o one had expected such num bers, and nobody was
prepared to handle the problem s th a t arose from drug-use, tough dealing
practices and stealing. T he police had been against ‘the experim ent’. They
w ithdrew from the p ark fo r a few weeks and came back after m any com ­
plaints and bureaucratic struggles with a specially form ed ‘V ondelpark de­
tach m en t’. This police unit cam e m uch too late, was too inexperienced and
300
unsure o f the role they were supposed to play; and they had to cope with all
kinds of difficulties to be able to suppress ‘the crim inal elem ent’. D ue to an
initiative of the prosecuter there was a ‘bust’ of the recreation centre in the
park in the last week o f A ugust, which form ed a kind o f peak in the develop­
ment o f bad relations between police and project-staff. This staff had been
form ed and extended in haste and was a rath er m ixed group o f m ostly in­
experienced people. They were constantly called on to cope with large num ­
bers o f unusual and unanticipated problem s.
O ne was called ‘the tent problem ’. F ro m the end of Ju n e onw ard a few
small tents appeared. A t first their ow ners were sum m oned to take them
dow n but when there cam e m ore and m ore this was judged im possible, so th at
tow ards the end o f July there were m any, m any tents and some quite big ones.
Everybody talked ab o u t it but nobody knew how to handle the affair. The po­
lice seemed to be afraid th a t reactions from ‘the hippies’ against the police
might generate a riot. In A ugust the M ayor came back from his holidays and
quickly ordered a ‘cleariing’ action which was executed quietly and w ithout
any trouble.
The petty crim inality of p art of the park pop u latio n extended into the sur­
rounding areas, residential and shopping areas of relatively high standing,
with generated a lot of bad feelings, to put it mildly. In the rest of the city the
problem s were less pressing and new, b u t especially in and around the recre­
ational centres P arad iso and M ilky W ay the masses of young and naive cus­
tom ers attracted all kinds of hustlers. In all cases the m ajor problem was the
discrepancy betw een capacity on the one hand and the quantity of custom ers
on the other.
On life styles
One of the central tasks one can set for sociology is to study the way of life of
people, to study the w ay they ‘m ake’, ‘construct’, or ‘choose’ their way of liv­
ing. The results of these processes o f social construction can be studied from
m any different angles and on different levels. O n a collective level we can use
the term ‘culture’, we can speak a b o u t ‘structure’ when we consider organiza­
tions, and I will use the term ‘life style’ when my focus is on individuals. In
every case, one can distinguish betw een m ore form al, explicit, public and offi­
cial aspects, o n the one hand, and inform al, implicit, private b u t m ore factual
ones, on the other; o r betw een ideology, in stitutional order, and personal
image, as against factual guidelines, pragm atic rules and life as lived. W hen
301
we look a t the subject of this p a p e r ‘from the inside’ with o u r focus on the be­
havior of the young tourists themselves the concept of life style in an factual
sense seems the m ost relevant. T he ‘social organization’ th a t emerged inter­
nally (am ong the tourists themselves) was rath er sketchy and im provised and
rem ained relatively unstructured; externally (relating tourists to population
and authorities) the organization was of a ‘global’ sort, being based on ad hoc
form ed policies and im provization. T he culture o f the tourists rem ained
m ostly im plicit, while ‘culture-clash’ seems a rath er relevant concept when we
consider some public reactions.
T he lives, the portions of lives, th a t were lived by the young tourists in the
sum m er in A m sterdam had in m any cases a style th a t was largely ‘deviant’ as
com pared with the ‘norm al’ life styles practiced in A m sterdam by the settled
populatio n and by the usual tourists. They were m ore sim ilar, of course, to
the life styles of som e y outh groups, bohem ians and other outsiders. But the
large quan tity o f the ‘p ractitioners’ and the high visibility o f the ‘hippies’ in
the streets and in the park added to the special ‘offensiveness’ for m any m em ­
bers o f the settled population. W hen we shift from the public to the scientific
eye, these lives can be considered as of one class only on a very abstract level.
Even then their sameness can only be stated com paratively. O n this level their
‘groupness’ was no m ore th an a kind o f under-institutionalized mechanical
solidarity. The young in question lived ‘free’, independent, highly individual­
ized lives. Social bonds and attachm ents were ra th e r loose and tem porary; wefeelings vague and general: ‘m ankind’, ‘young people’, ‘park people’, people
from my country or tow n. There were no specified roles to play or tasks to
perform in any kind o f established structure. Y oung people were on their own
and w hat they did was m ainly for themselves. But in spite of this looseness
and vagueness there was considerable sim ilarity, rather uniform o r even ste­
reotyped behavior and outlook: hanging aro u n d , sm oking hashish, listening
to rock music, w earing long hair, jeans-type clothes, etc. There was a com bi­
nation of stylistic sim ilarity and a low level o f interdependence o f an ‘organic’
type. O th er people of the sam e ‘pseudo-species’, E rikson’s term , were im por­
tant as co-users o f a shared setting, as silent m utual confirm ers o f a way o f
life, as co-builders o f an atm osphere supportive o f all. O n this level the life
styles concerned can be conceptualized in a largely negative way: the com m on
d enom in ato r is a ‘f reed o m f r o m ’, a ‘negation’ o f in stitutional control of be­
havior, experience, dem eanor and life-organization. T he positive elements
(n o t in a m oral sense) are quite sketchy on this level. T he young cam e es­
pecially to A m sterdam because it offered, or seemed to offer, a certain free­
dom from external restrain t and repression, a certain tolerance fo r deviant
302
forms and some possibilities to live ‘alternatively’. But when we look at the
way this ‘behavioral space’ is used, we see a large variety of objectives, p ro ­
jects, and m eaning. In other w ords, when we look at the m atter positively, as
‘f reedom to ’, we have to go beyond the generality an d the sameness o f the
youth culture which is rath er superficial, to encounter a m ultitude o f m o­
tives and behaviors which different people display in various ways. This
means th at we have to fight the very hum an tendency to generalize, to see the
negative freedom and to infer or im pute one o r an o th er positive freedom and
treat it as an adequate description. This tendency can be seen at w ork in all
kinds o f labellings and interpretations, like the p o p u lar one in H olland
‘long-haired lazy scum’, like the tendencies to see ‘hippies’ as peaceful saints,
or lazy and spoiled children, o r crim inals and m aniacs, etc.
One of the tasks o f a m ore detached sociological observation can be to dis­
cern the variety and debunk the generalization born in a to o close and one-si­
ded involvem ent. B ut to say som ething one simply has to generalize. As a
kind o f com prom ise five theoretically form ulated, m orally neutral perspec­
tives were chosen. These are useful, we hope, to cope with the variety w ithout
falling into too m any trap s of partialness. It is striking th a t m ost of the m ore
involved observers used one o r tw o of these perspectives implicitly bu t rarely
more. These perspectives are 1. a socio-cultural one, 2. a recreational one, 3. a
psycho-social one, 4. a problem -oriented one, and 5. a deviance-oriented per­
spective.
In a socio-cultural perspective we consider certain behaviors, goals and val­
ues o f individuals in the contexts of larger developm ents o f ‘culture’ in con­
nection with developm ents in the structure o f h um an interdependencies.
There have been num erous im p o rtan t changes in the cultural orientations of
many, especially young people, in m odern, highly industrialized societies d u r­
ing the last 15 or so years. W ith a, in a sense unjustified, suggestion o f one­
ness and newness one can speak o f The Emergence o f a C o u n ter C ulture. The
‘whole’ consists in reality of a m ultitude of tendencies, vague feelings, chang­
ing and shifting every m om ent on the one hand and some explicitly form ula­
ted ideologies on the other. M ost of these attitu d es and behaviors have been
observed in previous periods, b u t never on this scale. T he general trend of this
‘m ovem ent’ is one of detachm ent vis a vis established routines and structures
and looking for ‘alternatives’ either actively o r passively, individually o r col­
lectively, in a m ore ‘cultu ral’ or a m ore ‘political’ vein. T here are m any factors
that m ust be tak en into consideration if one w ants to ‘explain’ these develop­
ments; som e m ainly ‘stru ctu ral’ and others m ore historical in character.
However, I lack tim e an d space to spell them out in this paper. The im por­
303
ta n t point for us here is the non-accidental character o f all this: it belongs
here, you can’t wipe it out.
M any characteristics o f the young tourists’ style as we observed it, fit into a
counter-cultural model: an unwillingness to endure restraint, to follow estab­
lished ways, to play in stitutional roles and realize oneself in institutional
identities; a preference for the unform ed, the bright, the accidental, the un­
speakable, illustrate this. But, as I said, there are m any substream s in the
C ounter C ulture. W hat we observed fits largely in a kind of quiet pessimism
mingled w ith quiet jo y and som etim es b itter existentialism . F o r m any, the big
dream s — change society, build a better w orld, m ake a revolution — are
gone. O ne defines the objectives on a sm aller scale: ‘better yourself first’, ‘de­
velop your m ind’, ‘enjoy y o u rself, ‘stay alive’, ‘stay o u t’, ‘take life as it comes
and see the good in it’. To keep alive, physically a n d /o r m orally, to guard
your au tonom y or stay independent as long as possible, to enjoy yourself o r
to develop y o u r personality, these are the prom inent objectives discernable.
This m akes the life style concept highly relevant as I have said; life is defined
as a m ore or less individual process, at least this is the ‘idea’. O ther people are
relevant, but in a general way, not personally so to speak. Both the institu­
tional and the oppositional options seem unattractive: the first is m orally
and esthetically repugnant an d unclean, and th e second involves to o m any
hardships and acute feelings o f m eaninglessness and powerlessness. So these
people do not fit themselves into any kind o f collectively organized scheme
of roles. They m ay jo in a group, they m ay com m unicate, interact, etc. but
always with an eye on their personal freedom .
The C o u n ter C ulture has won so m uch pow er in a charism atic sense th a t
m any elem ents which one can define a s ‘counter-cultural’have spread am ong
groups of people who d o n ’t have a ‘to tal’ com m itm ent to it. There is a kind of
counter-culture fashion, both in a literal and in a m ore figurative sense, which
attracts m any people who are in a position which m akes this possible and a t­
tractive. Especially stro n g am ong these ‘follow ers’ are people in their early
and m iddle teens who are starting on a m ore independent route in their lives
and w ho can easily and cheaply find their sym bols o f independence in the o u t­
side characteristics of the co u n ter culture. A lot of young, very young and
very inexperienced people from nearby countries were seen in A m sterdam
playing a hippie game. So one can see g radations in depth and involvem ent,
connected with a kind of seniority in the counter culture.
In a recreational perspective we can use the general differentiation between
m ore instrum ental and m ore expressive activities, between w ork and leisure,
betw een the serious and the playful which can be discerned in many spheres of
304
life. In a sphere o f recreation people are less g o a l-a n d m ore value-oriented,
they feel less restrained and m ore free, they ‘deco n tract’ and ‘are themselves’.
In o u r kinds of societies it is usual fo r m any people to quit their serious pur­
suits and the place they live for a few weeks and to relax, do things they like,
eat, drink and be m erry as they please in the com pany o f like-m inded and likestyled people. A good m any of the things we observed am ong the young to u r­
ists fit this m odel perfectly: m ost o f the young people were free from school
or w ork obligations for a restricted tim e which they used to relax in another
place with peers. It is true th a t the style o f relaxation differs in m any aspects
from established ways, b u t in a stru ctu ral sense there is m uch similarity. The
differences are largely a m atter o f ‘m eans’, of tim e span (greater), and of orga­
nization (less). A nd, as I im plied above, the choice of recreational m eans is
borrow ed from the C o u n ter C ulture: the H ippie G am e is used as a recreation
game.
In a psycho-social perspective one can in terpret behavior, o r m ore gen­
erally a life style, as fitting in a process of individual developm ent. Everybody
lives a life which can be seen as his or her own, developing a continually repro­
duced life style. It is in p a rt determ ined and influenced by ‘circum stances’, but
it is also a creation, a creation w ithin a lim ited repertoire. These develop­
ments have a certain logic, a certain understandability afterw ards b u t never
an absolute predictability in advance. O ne o f the m eans to gain a m ore gen­
eral understanding in this m atter is a conceptualization of developm ental pha­
ses, in which certain problem s are m ore central than others. The young to u r­
ists we observed were in m any cases involved in the problem one loosely de­
fines as problem s o f identity. T hey were looking for and experim enting with
‘new’ identities o r com binations of identity-elem ents. In m any societies the
emergence of a certain ‘space’ for this seeking and experim enting can be seen,
a certain freedom from restrain t and responsibility, w hat Erikson (1968, p.
156) has called a ‘psycho-social m o rato riu m ’.The possibilities offered by such
a ‘m o rato riu m ’ have spread enorm ously: shifts in identity can be deeper now
and m ore people can have them . These developm ents transcend the traditi­
onal concept o f adolescence, which m ade K eniston (1968, p. 264) introduce a
new term ‘Y outh Phase’.
This seeking and experim enting is not done individually in any strict sense;
it is largely done in conform ity with positive and in co n frontation with nega­
tive reference groups. Its ideal setting is a loose, supportive peer group in a
‘free’ atm osphere, as in V ondelpark. Its central process is experiencing and
learning from that. But people in o u r culture are very badly prepared for an
evaluation o f behaviors in such a light. M ore generally, we have not been
305
trained to com bine perceptions o f events w ith conceptions of processes, or,
to put it differently to com bine the perception ‘tem poral’ w ith the judgem ent
‘serious’ or ‘w orthw hile’ (Elias, 1970). But seen in a m ore detached light, m any
shocking things in the bourgeois-eye are n o t definite although they are seri­
ous. T his is especially the case w ith m any kinds of drug-induced experiences,
‘good’ as well as ‘b ad ’, b u t also w ith not-w orking, prom iscuity, not-w ashing, etc.
O ur subjects were often involved in a phase o f their life in which a P rotean
life style, as Lifton(1968) has called it, is dom inant. W hat follows in o th er sta­
ges o f the life-cycle is not yet know n and unpredictable. One can go dow n or
up, regress o r progress or get stuck. It is a risky phase, open-ended . . .
In a problem -oriented perspective one takes an o th er look a t m any o f the
phenom ena we ap p roached earlier in term s o f freedom , looseness and beha­
vioral space. F o r m any people, however, there are aspects o f unfreedom and
struggle fo r freedom which m ake their lives less happy and willed th a n we im­
plied earlier. We can say in m ore o rdinary language th a t m any people had
personal a n d /o r social problem s to cope with. Som e of these were m anifest
before they cam e to A m sterdam and others developed during their stay. In
both cases, the ‘freetow n’-character A m sterdam developed fo r young people
had som ething to do w ith it. D eserters from the U.S. and Portuguese arm ies,
runaw ay m inors from hom es and correctional institutions, and refugees from
oppressive regimes cam e here and had trouble staying alive in a reasonable
way. O thers (and often the same) had problem s o f a m ore personal sort, con­
nected with their own developm ent and risks and experim ents therein, often
stim ulated by drug-use. All these problem cases m anifesting themselves in
such an ‘understru ctu red ’ setting were difficult to handle in themselves, and
especially in such quantities. The existing aid in stitutions and groups were in
an understandable state o f irritatio n because their ‘n orm al’ w ork is difficult
enough and their m eans very restricted. The help th at was given was usually
free, anonym ous and intended to ‘free’ people so th at they can help them ­
selves, but in some cases new dependencies developed.
In a deviance perspective one considers behavior in the context o f an estab­
lished norm ative structure. Seen in this light m any, m any things done by the
young fall into deviant categories. All kinds of rules concerning clothing, hy­
giene, the concealm ent of intim acies, drugs, noise-m aking were m ore o r less
violated as were prop erty norm s and m ore generally ‘involvem ent’ norm s
(G offm an, 1963). In every society a certain m easure of deviance and a certain
m easure o f control can be considered ‘norm al’ and in m ost cases there is a
kind o f equilibrium between the two. But here deviance was stronger th an
306
control and this inbalance increased during the sum m er. We have already
m entioned a d e-institutionalization of norm ative rules, an under-organized
situation. This was the case ‘internally’ (am ong the young tourists themselves)
and ‘externally’ (betw een tourists on the one and p o p u lation and authorities
on the other hand). T he d estruction of some values, norm s and com m on un­
derstandings involved a w eakening of others; for exam ple ‘productivity’ and
‘p roperty’. Because som e form s of deviance were accepted it was hard to drive
out others; for exam ple hash-sm oking and stealing. Because one didn’t trust
the police concerning drugs and oth er m atters it was hard to seek help in cases
of intim idation and terrorism . This im potence was also hard to overcom e be­
cause of the heterogeneity, the fluctuation and the looseness o f the ‘society’ in
question. The possibilities this situation offered fo r those who can be describ­
ed as m ore crim inal than non-conform ing (M erton, 1957, p. 360) were used
by m any different groups. T here were certain m inority groups in D utch so­
ciety, from (ex-)colonies or otherw ise, but also tourists o r ‘new -nom ads’ who
used this ‘space’ to gain a little o r a lot o f m oney o r oth er profits. It appeared
hard to use the dichotom y crim inal-non-conform er in a strict sense: m any
people legitim ated their ‘m arginally crim inal’ behavior by com plaints about
the wickedness o f established society. All this deviance generated consider­
able labelling activities. T he young tourists, as ‘dirty hippies’, ‘lazy scum ’, etc.,
were, of course, easy victim s for m any. But it was o u r im pression th at this
kind o f general labelling was less practised com pared to the last few years.
There seems to be a certain process o f accom m odation and differentiation at
work. T here was also less aggressiveness in a physical sense and there were no
violent riots as the year before. But the stigm atizing and labelling was direc­
ted m ore and m ore tow ards certain groups w ithin the mass now, especially
national or ethnic groups. M any people, especially staff-m em bers of the vari­
ous projects, created new scapegoats to save the ‘norm al hippie’ or the ‘peace­
ful young tou rists’ or so it seems. These groups were easily recognizable by
appearance a n d /o r language like ‘foreign w orkers’, ‘po o r Italians and
F renchm en’, ‘S urinam ers’ and ‘Indonesians’. O ne can be quite sure th a t some
individuals ‘deserved’ som e condem nation but these general judgm ents were
often too hasty.
On ‘social organization’
A lthough, as said, m ore collective phenom ena like bondings or we-feelings
were less prom inent am ong the young tourists I would like to discuss here
307
some aspects o f the ‘social organization’ th a t did evolve. The sketchy social
form ations th at could be observed can be characterized as solutions for some
elem entary problem s, nam ely sleeping, eating, recreation, sociability, m oney
and drugs. Sleeping was done in com m ercially exploited hotels, in city-financ­
ed ‘sleep-ins’, in the open air in V ondelpark o r in the houses o f friends, ac­
quaintances or w hat can be called ‘the alternative m iddle classes’. A lot o f
people tried to keep sleeping costs a t a m inim um to be able to buy m ore
drugs and stay longer in A m sterdam . Especially in the less safe settings as in
V ondelpark there was som e fo rm atio n o f ‘sleeping groups’ which served func­
tions o f sociability and m utual help also. They were often, but not always, bas­
ed on national or regional origin; especially in the beginning. G roups that
existed longer were m ore heterogeneous in origin but m ore hom ogeneous in
life style. Eating was d one in a very im provised m anner, here and there, w her­
ever one found oneself. W hat was offered in the various ‘centres’ was largely
‘m acrobiotic’ an d ‘biologic-dynam ic’ in character: h ealth-foodsand teas. But
m any young tourists also used m ore conventional facilities and square p ro d ­
ucts: French fried and sandwiches.
Recreational activities were only partially separable from o ther kinds. The
activities were hardly actively centered on A m sterdam : the city was m ostly
used as a to leran t context w ith a good atm osphere, but not as som ething inter­
esting in itself. The sam e can be said o f the use o f the recreational centres:
they were used rather passively and consum ptively. This seems congruent
with drug-use: one m anipulates oneself for kicks and one selects stim uli in the
environm ent, sights, smells, tastes, sounds, to build-up a pleasant, high feel­
ing. This is im p o rtan t and generates a lot of talk. C om petence in these activi­
ties can be acquired, but it m eans a certain passive consum ption of w hat is of­
fered. It m eans using the environm ent, individually or in small groups, not
participating in its creation. These useful environm ents were offered in a cer­
tain variety, som etim es m ore loving and som etim es m ore ‘h ard ’, cynical and
profit-oriented.
The quan tity of visitors especially tow ards the end o f the season, created
m any problem s of crim inal deviance and control: aggressive dealing in drugs
of bad quality, pick-pocketing, etc. As im plied, it is hard to drive these people
out, w ithout scaring the innocent hash-sm oker or the runaw ay child. In some
cases a selective policy has been followed w ith a program and a price destined
to keep the tough people away. If this worked as intended the young from ‘un­
derprivileged’ categories had one place less where they could be themselves.
‘Sociability’ was, o f course, a large p art o f recreation, but it can also be
treated under a separate heading. The ‘reasons’ for a contact could be many:
308
the sharing of an ethnic or local background, o f behavioral preferences or
ideological orientation, etc. M any conversations centered around the details
of w hat one could do where and consisted o f the exchange of inform ation rele­
vant for tourist life. The exchange o f goods o f all kinds, bought, stolen or sec­
ond-hand also generated a lot o f talking. D rugs and music served as kinds of
general socializers, being the starting-point or accom panim ent o f m ost con­
tacts. As a general characteristic o f sociability an accent on non-com m itm ent,
on m utual auto n o m y , is the m ost notew orthy. Fam ily-nam es were alm ost
never used or know n, m any people used pseudonym s or nick-nam es. People
didn’t ask or tell m uch a b o u t themselves or the other personality; one prefer­
red a certain vagueness and disliked any intrusiveness. O n both sides o f this
general style o f sociability characterized by non-com m itting friendliness, one
could discern m ore positive and m ore negative forms: m utual help and m a­
nipulation. M anip u latio n could take form s as ‘eating o u t’, begging (‘fifty
cents please’), stealing, raping, ‘o perating’ and prostitution. It may be noted
th at on the whole there was in fact less sexual interest and activity th an one
perhaps expected an d certainly less th a n some m yth-m akers would have it.
The financial m eans o f m any young tourists were scanty indeed although
others were relatively wealthy. So some were very active and inventive to get
the few guilders a day they needed to stay alive and high, while others were a
source, willing o r not, of m oney for the first. M any ways were used to keep the
stream going: ‘alternative’ w ork o r incidental services, the m aking and selling
of handicraft o rnam ents and hash-pipes, music m aking, the collection of
em pty bottles, fencing, drug-dealing, begging and stealing. M aybe because of
the high needs, the scarcity of possibilities and the high num ber of com peti­
tors m any relationships with a financial com ponent were highly m anipula­
tive, seducing o r threatening, and this seemed to be accepted as inevitable.
So the m any with acute survival-problem s practiced new and old m ethods
of ‘hunting and gathering’, while som e evolved to a kind of ‘neo-artisanat’.
It cannot com e as a surprise th a t 'drugs’ is the m ost problem atic o f the
foci o f social organization th at will be dealt with in this paper: a tough and
touchy subject for policy as well as for research. The drugs taken by the young
tourist can, as far as the illegal ones are concerned, best be treated as o f four
kinds: 1. hashish an d m arihuana, 2. trips (L S D , etc.), 3. speeds (am phetam i­
nes, etc.) and 4. opiates. M any people w ho only speak generally o f drugs, or
even the subtle ones who differentiate betw een ‘h ard ’ and ‘soft’, ignore the
large differences in use an d effect o f these fo u r kinds. The sequence o f these
four also represents the o rd er of their ‘follow ing’ and the acceptance one
generally had for their use.
309
The ‘sm oking’ or ‘blow ing’ o f hash and weed were general phenom ena, ac­
cepted by alm ost anyone and often done quite openly. This acceptance is not
shared to the same extent by all D utch authorities and by the police-officers
which led to some ‘m isunderstandings’. The use o f these drugs was for m ost a
regular accom panim ent to their recreational activities and a large m inority
‘blow ed’ from m orning to night to stay very, very stoned.
H ash- and weed-sm oking is a typically ‘social’ action: it is a central activity
in m any groups and is often the reason for form ing new ones. The prep ara­
tions are followed eagerly, critically and w ith an ticip ato ry pleasure. People
com m ent on techniques, quality, experiences o f others. W hen the dru g takes
its effect one laughingly shares the experience after which there follows on
most occasions a low ering of activity and interaction. M any people were ly­
ing dow n in their sleeping place o r in a recreational centre, clearly ‘o u t’, or at
least show ing very little signs o f ‘straight’ life. T rips were used m ore often
th an before, but in not so general, open and easy a m anner as with hash. It is a
m ore individual or sm all-group affair. T he effects are m ore spectacular, m ore
dependent on a supportive atm osphere and h ard er to interpret as harm less
and passing as com pared to hash. So it doesn’t com e as a surprise th a t some
people, especially the less experienced, had a bad trip, or ‘flipped’. This was
m ore frequent w hen, during the sum m er, trips of an unusual strength were of­
fered, generating unbased rum ors o f ‘rat-poisoned trips’ generally believed
w ithout analysis. The help th a t ‘flippers’ need should be given by an experienc­
ed person, w ithout panic, in a calm ing dow n and reassuring way. H elp of
this quality was often not available. T he w orld o f the trip p er seems hard to
em pathize w ith for a ‘straight’ person, including the ones in position o f
autho rity . The use of speeds and opiates is h ard er to observe because it is less
accepted. ‘S pouters’ form ed a very unstable, shifting group, needing and
m istrusting one ano th er. They are hard to help and because there aren’t too
many, and m aybe because they generate so m uch anxiety in the ‘straight’
person, there isn’t a really good organization to do this.
The supply of drugs is o f course organized illegally by 'dealers’ who d o n ’t
open up their trad e easily for sociological or any o ther kind of investigation.
T he inform ation one can get is understandable from two perspectives, a com ­
m ercial and a crim inal one. F rom the first one can use all kinds of regularities
form ulated by econom ists concerning price-fluctuations, capital-form ation,
the im portance o f regular supply and sales, the difference in the treatm ent o f
regular an d irregular custom ers, com petition and cartel-form ation. The sec­
ond aspect explains all kinds o f secrecy and anonym ity and m any instances
o f ‘secundary deviation’ (L em ert, 1967). Because dealing is an illegal and pro310
secuted activity to begin with, it attracts m any who are willing and able to act
against the law in oth er respects also and others may feel forced by com peti­
tion to follow them . A nd because the deal itself is illegal, the custom ers do n ’t
have ways to procure the protection against deceit and intim idation they may
think they could use in the case of buying a second-hand car for exam ple. The
quality of the hash offered for sale to passing tourists is often very bad indeed,
as the nick-nam e ‘bullistan’ indicates. T hus the illegal ch aracter o f dru g deal­
ing has the effect o f encouraging dishonest a n d /o r crim inal behavior by the
dealer tow ard the custom er. T he tendency tow ards cheating, doctoring etc. of
the m erchandise is especially strong w hen there are m any inexperienced and
passing custom ers, and w hen there is a lim ited supply, as was the case in the
second half of Ju ly 1971. W hen hash is scare in such a period there is a real
danger of ‘filling the gap w ith hard drugs’. So one could argue fo r a policy of
inform al protection of the honest hash-dealer to drive o u t tough crim inals
and hard stuff. But although this advice has often been given, it is still not fol­
lowed. Legalistic arg u m en tatio n still wins from grass-roots realism and hu­
m anitarian tolerance. T he effect is the ad hoc prosecution o f accidentally
found dealers o f relatively innocent drugs, som etim es grotesque ‘gestures’ of
prosecution in the form of ‘busts’ and no effective policy in regard to speeds
and opiates.
On p o licy an d p u b lic reactions
W hen we look a t the phenom ena connected with Y outh T ourism from a
greater distance, from a larger perspective, there are m any questions o f ‘how ’
and ‘why’ th a t could be put and tentatively answ ered. One could ask why it
happened in A m sterdam , why in this period and w hat will happen in the
future. One could ask for a description and explan atio n o f the policy o f rela­
tive tolerance th a t cam e into being in A m sterdam in this area. O ne could
ask for an exposé on the reactions to all this by the public at large o r groups
w ithin it. It is hardly possible to treat these problem s and others like them
satisfactorily in the con tex t o f a short paper, but I will attem pt to suggest
a few lines of the fram ew ork in which these answ ers could be form ulated. I
will use illustrative m aterial from the sum m er o f ’71, the discussions follow­
ing th a t season and the p rep aratio n up to the tim e o f writing (M ay 1972) of
policy form ulation and in practical prep aratio n , especially in regard to the
Park-problem .
O n the m ost general level one can observe in D utch society a long term
311
tendency to treat problem s by avoidance, by ‘accom m odation’ and b y ‘con­
tainm en t’. A lthough H olland em erged as a national state from a ‘liberation
struggle’, it has a long trad itio n of pluralism , o f m any groups living together
in the sam e area and of the recognition th a t no group can dom inate w ithout
the others’ consent (G oudsblom , 1967). O ne could also speak of a tradition
of fights over ‘principles’, com bined with a practical, business-oriented
tolerance w hich m ade H olland a land of refuge for fools and radicals, es­
pecially, if they b rought m oney in. A fter the w ar there has been a succes­
sion of coalition-based governm ents with shifting alliances am ong the
(m any) parties. T he A m sterdam city-council and governm ent reflect this
but m ore to the left th an on the national level, owing to the city’s socialist
and liberal leanings. Below o r behind the party and governm ent scene is a
large b ureaucratic ‘forest’, dom inated by civil service, welfare state and
rules-are-rules tendencies. In A m sterdam the m unicipal bureaucracy
seems to be especially divided, p artly rule- and partly service-oriented and
afraid to lose influence com pared to other branches. The police departm ent
is m unicipally organized, officially subjected to the m ayor, as far as ‘order
problem s’, and to the prosecutor, as far as ‘law enforcem ent’ aspects are
concerned. In the sphere o f ‘service’ and ‘welfare’ a trad itio n has developed
in which a problem area at first is covered by w hat is called ‘private initia­
tive’ (philanthropy), afterw ards to be subsidized or ‘taken over’ by govern­
m ent agencies. This also happened in o u r case when a F o u n d atio n for
S um m er Y outh A ccom m odation was incorporated in m unicipal agencies
and dom inated by ‘b ureaucrats’.
A fter a ‘resto ratio n ’ period follow ing W orld W ar II, a change in the de­
velopm ent of the N etherlands set in in the early sixties (as in other coun­
tries) with m any, especially young people, struggling for m ore freedom ,
m ore influence, right to speak out and to live as they please. O n a national
level these struggles have especially touched the mass media (TV) and have
had their m ost pow erful effect am o n g the R om an C atholics. O n the city
level these struggles have culm inated in the w ell-know n PR O V O happen­
ings and in the K ab o u ter m ovem ent a few years later. S tudent m ovem ents
and ‘stop the w ar’-dem onstrations have also been prom inent. A m ong the
effects of these developm ents m ay be m entioned the creation o f diverse
subsidized facilities for young people (recreation and aid), an oversensitive
police-force, a general a ttitu d e ‘for G od’s sake no riots’, fierce m inorities to
the left (‘no’ against repression) and the right (stop the degeneration) and a
large m ajority which isn’t too interested, but doesn’t like either alternative.
G overnm ent-leaders are always centre-oriented and afraid to aw ake the
312
dogs and the birds. F ro m these diverse tendencies, pow er-balances and
traditions, which could and should be better and m ore extensively described
and analysed th a n can be done here, it is u n derstandable th at the tolerance
policy could also be described as a kind of accom m odation, as a kind of
non-treatm ent of problem s, as an effect of im potence as well as o f principles.
The policies followed have largely depended on im provisation because no­
body m ade decisions, have been largely m otivated by the desire to avoid
‘trouble’ (riots for exam ple) and so show a chaotic picture of ‘dikes and
windm ills’ and produce effects nobody w ants, w anted o r is happy with.
These points can be illustrated by some inform ation on the preparation of
the season of ’72. Even before the end of the sum m er o f ’71 heated discus­
sions started, especially on the question of — w hat was called — the conti­
nuation of the V ondelpark-experim ent. A lot of press-com m ents, interviews
and articles appeared. A n action-group ‘Save the P ark ’ was form ed (anti),
followed by an o th er ‘Jo y in the p a rk ’ (pro). T he reports issued during the
fall were mildly pro (the agencies concerned), anti (the police) or m ore or
less detached (the researchers). D uring a ‘hearing’ in D ecem ber m ore wild
voices p ro an d con were raised by people living in nearby quarters. But
there was one thing th a t everybody agreed upon: if it was done again it
should be m uch better organized, prepared earlier, depending less on panic
and im provisation. W hat happened? The im p o rtan t decisions, concerning
the park-project, were delayed and delayed and finally taken by the m unici­
pal council after m any hours of deliberation on M arch 30th. The A id-organizations announced earlier th a t Ja n u a ry 1st could be considered a dead­
line for a good and M arch 1st for a bad policy. D uring these deliberations
all parties in the council spoke, and m ostly by tw o voices, one pro and
an o th er con, and m ostly on the issue allow ance for sleeping outside, only
touching lightly on oth er m aybe m ore im p o rtan t issues. They voted at last
to allow sleeping outside in som e restricted areas and supplied nearly a
m illion guilders for facilities and fo r the salaries of the 80 tem porary w ork­
ers in the project. T he ‘an ti’-groups have since then m ade an appeal to the
judge to let him declare the decisions regarding sleeping in the park unlaw ­
ful and to forbid sleeping there. In first instance they lost, but they appealed
again and lost again. T he organization o f the project has been extended and
form alized com pared to last year, but it is not possible yet to say w hat will
happen in the high season.
It is rather an u nderstatem ent to say th at the young tourists, the ‘hippies’
or the people in the park generated ‘m ixed feelings’. They generated con­
313
flict, heated discussions, confusion an d all kinds o f ‘defense m echanism s’:
denial, projection, identification, d istortion, etc. The concept o f am biv­
alence can be used to account for these confusions on the collective as well
as on the individual level. O ne can think o f an am bivalence tow ards free­
dom with which, for exam ple, M erto n ’s distinction between non-conform ­
ing and crim inal behavior tries to deal intellectually and which centered in
our case aro u n d the ‘tolerance’ issues. Tolerance can be felt to be weakness
as well as strength, can be interpreted as space given o r left open. T his is
connected with a m ore general am bivalence in generational relations in the
N etherlands, where a clear conflict betw een life styles connected with gener­
ations has given way to w hat seems to be a m ore general crisis. The older
people are less sure th an ten years ago th a t they are right and there are m any
who think the old ways are wrong. T he younger ones are hesitant, not
know ing how to use the space and pow er they are getting and unsure about
the real value o f these. In both ‘cam ps’ a m ajority seems to escape into con­
sum ption, buying sym bols of settledness, the good life, m odernism or even
revolt as the standards o f their social circle suggests. D eep am bivalences
aro u n d ‘instrum ental’ versus ‘expressive’ values, com petition versus coope­
ration, seem to form the basis o f this. A way out, a livable hum ane alter­
native seems hard to build (Slater, 1970).
Com m ent
The w riting o f this paper was finished in M ay 1972. The inform ation I have
on developm ents after th a t does n o t fundam entally devaluate w hat I
wrote at the time. T he m ain point that can be added is that everything went
rather sm ooth since, a t least from the outside. A process o f accom m oda­
tion th at had already set in in ’71 has continued up till now. T he population
takes the Y outh T ourism scene m ore or less for granted. Even if they d o n ’t
like it, they d o n ’t publicly show their anger. T he w orkings o f the projects
themselves have also been m uch sm oother th an before. People know the
problem s now and how to solve a n d /o r avoid them . The influence o f cityofficials has stayed p aram o u n t. Plans to p u t the project-m anagem ent back
in the hands o f private persons and bodies have failed mostly. The life
styles of the tourists themselves have developed largely along the lines I
presum ed: playing the hippie gam e as a recreation gam e plus attractio n of
‘problem -people’. H eroin-use, which was notably absent in form er years,
has been spreading in ’73. Police co n tro l is especially ineffective in this as­
314
pect. So Y outh T ourism , as Y outh C ulture in general, has regained a m ar­
ginal position in city life. A n advertisem ent for liberalism and tolerance,
with the problem s safely swept under the carpet.
Ju ne, 1974
References
Elias, N ., Was ist Soziologie?, M iinchen, 1970.
E rikson, E. H ., Identity: Youth and Crisis, N ew Y ork, 1968.
G offm an , E., Behavior in Public Places. Notes on the Social Organization o f Gatherings, New
Y ork, 1963.
G o u d sb lo m , J ., Dutch Society, New Y ork, 1967.
K eniston, K., Young Radicals. Notes on C om m itted Youth, New Y ork, 1968.
L em ert, E. M ., Hum an Deviance, Social Problems and Social Control, E nglew ood Cliffs,
N .J., 1967.
L ifton, R . J ., ‘P ro te a n M an ’, in: Partisan Review, 1968.
M erto n , R. K., Social Theory and Social Structure, G lencoe, 111, 1957.
S ch u r, E. M ., Crimes without Victims, Deviant Behavior and Public Policy, A bortion, H om o­
sexuality, Drug A ddiction, E nglew ood Cliffs, N .J., 1965.
S later, P. E., The Pursuit o f Loneliness. American Culture at the Breaking Point, Boston,
1970.
V eldkam p M a rk to n d erzo ek NV , Jeugdtoeristen in A m sterdam juli-augustus 1971, A m sterdam ,
1971.
315