Alcohol and generations.
Changes in style and changing styles
in Italy & Finland
Franca Beccaria
Cernobbio, 16 October 2009
Alcohol and generations
RESEARCH GROUPS
ƒ FINLANDIA:, Christoffer Tigerstedt, Jenni Simonen (National
Istitute of Health and Welfare, Helsinki)
ƒ SVEZIA: Jukka Törrönen (Social Research on Alcohol and Drugs
SoRAD, Stockholm)
ƒ ITALIA: Franca Beccaria, Sara Rolando (Eclectica, research and
communication agency, Torino), Franco Prina (University of
Torino).
Introduction
14
12
Italy
10
8
Finland
6
4
2
19
62
19
64
19
66
19
68
19
70
19
72
19
74
19
76
19
78
19
80
19
82
19
84
19
86
19
88
19
90
19
92
19
94
19
96
19
98
20
00
20
02
20
04
0
Finland
Italy
Pure alcohol consumption pro capite - 1962-2004
Aims
Changes in alcohol drinking
• to explore continuity and transformations in consumption models comparing four
different generations
• to understand the role of alcohol socialization
• to describe changes in consumption patterns in the last 40 years within every
cohort and between the various cohorts
• to identify the various formal and informal, internal and external control
mechanisms regulating the relationship with alcoholic drinks
Samples
Italy
Age
Finland
Year of birth
Age
Year of birth
67-70
1937-1940
57-64
1943–1950
52-55
1952-1955
41-48
1959–1966
37-40
1967-1970
25-32
1975–1982
17-20
1987-1990
17-24
1983-1990
Italy (Torino)
Samples
cohort
17-20
37-40
gender
economical-social level
high
1
M
low
2
F
high
3
low
4
hogh
5
low
6
high
7
low
8
high
9
low
10
high
11
low
12
high
13
low
14
high
15
low
16
M
F
52-55
M
F
67-70
focus-group
M
F
Total 102
Italy (Torino)
Samples
Cohort
Adolescence period
Alcohol consumption
1937-40
War experience, first industrialization,
economical boom, migration
Increase
1952-55
Great social changes, break with previous Changes in alcohol
generations, women in the labour market, consumption trend,
decrease in local product consumption
increase in beer consumption,
decrease in wine consumption
1967-70
Tertiary sector, computer revolution,
positive economical situation, increase in
consumption (status goods), health
attention
Decrease
New alcoholic beverages
1987-90
Uncertainty, job market problems,
globalization
Decrease
Increase in intoxication,
European alcohol policies
Finland (Helsinki)
Samples
Gender
High education
Low education
Age
Participants
Profession
M
17-24
5
Students (pedagogics)
M
25-32
3
Teachers
M+F
M
F
41-48
57-64
17-24
4
4
5
Teachers
Teachers
Students (pedagogics)
F
F
F
M
25-32
41-48
57-64
17-24
6
5
9
5
Teachers
Teachers
Teachers
Construction workers,
students
M
M
25-32
roughly 41-48
3
6
Odd-job men
Construction workers
M
57-64
7
Construction workers
F
17-24
8
Students (practical
nursing)
F
F
F
25-32
41-48
57-64
5
5
9
Practical nurses
Practical nurses
Practical nurses
N=88
Finland (Helsinki)
Samples
Cohort
Adolescence period
Alcohol consumption
1943-50
Welfare state – urbanization –
Prevalence of abstainers
industrialization – education– gender roles
– positive expectations
1959-66
Less omogenous – economical boom –
neoliberalism
1975-82
Economical crisis – welfare riorganization Increase in consumption and
– more competion in the work market –
drunkenness. Influence of EU
new tecnologies – unemployment
alcohol policy. Decrease in
prices. Increase in availability.
1983-90
Globalization – social break
Transition from a prohibitionist
alcohol policy to a more liberal
one. Increase in female
drinking.
Increase in drunkenness.
Increase in moderate drinking
and in abstinence.
Methods
ƒ Area 1: First recollection
Memories, feelings, alcohol socialization, alcohol drinking styles during
the youth period
.
Æ 14 images as stimulus
ƒ AREA 2: Today drinking habits
Drinking occasions, use values of alcohol
ƒ AREA 3: Changes
Changes in quantity, occasions, beverages during the life-course
.
Alcohol and generations.
Changes in style and changing styles
in Italy
Alcohol socialization process
Cohort
Representation
67-70
positive
52-55
negative(4)
positive
37-40
negative(3)
positive
17-20
positive
First recollections
Use value
nourishing,
socializing,
ritual
intoxicating
nourishing,
socializing,
ritual
intoxicating
nourishing,
socializing,
ritual
nourishing,
socializing,
ritual
Image
Beverage
family link, friendship,
hospitality, tradition
wine(+)
spirits(-)
violence
family link, friendship,
hospitality, tradition
wine
wine(+)
spirits(-)
violence
family link, friendship,
hospitality, tradition
wine
wine(+)
spirits (-)
family link, friendship,
hospitality, tradition
wine(+)
beer (-)
Alcohol socialization process
Cohort
Situation
First tastes
Use value
Actors
Beverages
67- 70
Family meals (+)
Family gatherings (-)
Nourishing, pharmacological (F),
socializing,
ritual
Parents, relatives,
family friends,
husband (F),
Workmate (M)
Comrade (M)
Wine
(spirits)
52-55
Family meals (+)
Family gatherings (-)
Nourishing, socializing, ritual
pharmacological (F)
Parents, relatives,
family friends,
Wine
(spirits)
Outside: party (2)
Family gatherings (+)
Family meals (-)
Experimental (M, F)
Socializing, nourishing, ritual,
pharmacological (F)
Friends
Parents, relatives,
family friends
Spirits
Wine
(spirits)
outside: party (1)
Experimental (M)
Friends
Sparkling
wine
Family gatherings (+)
Family meals (-)
Socializing, nourishing, ritual,
pharmacological (F)
Parents, relatives,
family friends
Outsite: pub/disco (1)
Experimental (M)
Friends
37-40
17-20
Wine
(beer)
Beer
Alcohol socialization process
First drinks
Cohort
52-55/67-70
17-20/37-40
Situation
Home, during the meal
Outside (pub, restaurant, disco)
Actors
Parents
Husband (F)
Workmates (M)
Friends
Age
4-30
14-15
Alcoholic beverages
Wine
Beer
Meanings
The beginning of daily
consumption
1
The beginning of regular
consumption (e.g. weekly)
0
Drunkenness
Alcohol socialization process
Cohort
Age/situation
67- 70
12-20
52-55
16-20
37-40
14-19
by accident, party,
(Binge drinking)
17-20
14-19
by accident, party,
(Binge drinking)
Use value / representation
First drunkenness
Actors
Beverages
Positive memories (M)
Experience not part of women course-life
(shame)
Regulated abuse, positive memories (M)
Fear to loose self-control (F)
Sad drunkenness (F)
Homologation and experimental use
Ritual (alcohol games)
The only experience (F)
Friends
Workmates
Wine
Friends
Boyfriend/husband
(F)
Friends
Spirits
Wine
Homologation and experimental use
Ritual (alcohol games)
Friends
Spirits,
cocktail
Spirits,
cocktail,
wine
Changes in youth drinking styles
Complexification
-drinking styles more complex, with more analogies than differences among the
practices and use values of the four cohorts
-socialization experiences and their relative depictions are very similar and converge in
an essentially positive vision of alcohol which recalls the typical values of the wet
tradition
-a progressive increase over time of consumption occasions: greater financial
resources, greater freedom both in terms of reduced control and in terms of mobility
-progressive expansion of the range of consumption styles and use values
Changes in youth drinking styles
Identity construction
-increase in cultural, physical and social activities: each of them characterized by an
appropriate consumption style
- on each occasion the individual young person takes on a different role and through a
given consumption style he/she assumes and communicates to others a specific social
identity
-the fragmentation of youth drinking styles represents the way in which young people adapt
to the flexibility and changeability of the post-modern age: the perception that the
eclecticism of their consumption styles is a functional reply to the uncertainty permeating
their lives
-young people can move from one group to another rather freely, creating those
changeable aggregations that have been called melting-pots, or consumption tribes
Changes in youth drinking styles
Redefinition of drinking styles
- nourishing style: it survives among the lower social classes as daily drinking, but it
belongs also to young people from the higher social class who learned to drink good
wine in the family and who consider sipping a glass of red wine with their dinner an
expression of refined and culturally modern taste (less regular consumption)
- from convivial to relational style: not only the pleasure to stay together but also the
desire to build relationships
- from homologating to identifying style: it summarizes the dual identificationdifferentiation function
- from transgressive to experimental style: the act of consumption as a response to a
desire to have an emotional and holistic experience
- starring style: different roles and identities create a kind of performance anxiety
Adults drinking styles
Complexification of drinking careers
The 67/70-year-olds:
• wet drinking culture drinking styles
• linear alcoholic careers
• the nourishing style clearly dominates over the others: wine is regularly consumed at meals in accordance
with a habit acquired in youth
• differences among genders
• abuse practices, which some experienced in their youth, disappeared over time
The 52-55-year-olds:
• wine is still consumed at mealtimes and within the family
• changes of drinking styles form the youth period to the adulthood, towards a more traditional model
• excessive drinking is generally referred to as an experience long since surpassed
The 37-40-year-olds:
• consumption at mealtimes for men from the lower social class (beer more than wine)
• diversification of drinking style: more social life, more drinking occasions and places
• “new female drinking”: they drink more often and the eventuality of occasionally getting drunk during the
year is not excluded
Conclusion
What has not changed?
- Alcohol representations: semantic wine meanings (traditions and family links)
- Alcohol socialization process
- Same importance of convivial and socializing meanings
- First drunkenness: convivial and social situation, by accident
- Youth drunkenness: rite for social identity definition
- Regulated abuse: tolerated but if it is not frequent, not solitary and not link to
violent behaviour
Conclusion
What has changed?
- First drinks: for young people they occur outside with friends
- Alcohol abuse: more tolerance, no transgressive meaning, performance anxiety
- Complexification of drinking styles
- Feminization of consumption: more emotional and symbolic meanings and less
“rational” meaning (nourishing)
- More experimental and intoxicant meanings
Conclusion
Does wet drinking culture exit yet?
• Globalization of drinking styles among young people is a complex issue
• Meanings and rules of wet drinking culture have been learnt also among young
people
• Alcohol abuse: it does not have a transgressive meaning, it is regulated by informal
rule, it lasts for a short period of life
• Continuity and reappraisal of tradition of wine consumption, also among 20 years-old
Alcohol and generations.
Changes in style and changing styles
in Finland compare to Italy
Alcohol socialization process
First recollections
A) Particular or festive
family settings at home
1) In special dinners with family members or with family friends at
Saturday evenings or on Sunday Æ wine: socialising use values
2) In weekly occurring custom of sauna bathing Æ beer; ritual and
thirst quenching use values
3) In a family setting that takes place outside home: a seasonal
feast where large amounts of alcohol are consumed Æ beer,
wine, spirits; ritual use values, alcohol as an intoxicant
B) Incidents happening
outside the domestic
sphere
Drunken neighbours or alcoholics in the neighbourhood.
Importantly, these images are widely represented in all cohorts,
implying that being intoxicated in public places has been a common
matter in Finland during the period of the study.
In contrast to Italy, the first experiences of other people’s
drinking are well remembered in Finland.
Significantly, such occasions are usually framed by the use
value of alcohol as an intoxicant.
Alcohol socialization process
Children vs. parents
New liberal
approach
First tastes & fist intoxications
ƒ A peer group context dominates in Finland.
ƒ Parents are often totally excluded from the scene.
ƒ The first tasting is recollected easily as a unique
event in one’s life story.
ƒ Occurs: Graduation ceremony, weekend, downtown at well-established public meeting places
ƒ The first taste is often coded as the first time
being intoxicated
Some parents take an active role in socialising their
children into the art of drinking.
While in Italy children become socialised into the drinking culture by
their parents, in Finland only a limited number of the interviewees
had tasted alcoholic beverages in the domestic sphere in their
childhood.
Drinking habits among adults
Young adults (26-33): party, drinking situations relate both to the domestic sphere (like
one's own home and friends' homes) and to public places (like restaurants). Drinking during
meals.
Adults (40-47): drinking becomes much more private: like having dinner with one's spouse,
family friends, relatives and other acquaintances, drinking after sauna, drinking at one's
summer cottage.
Men more often than women also tell about drinking in public arenas like bars.
Older cohort (55-60): dining and socializing with the spouse at home, or meeting friends.
Gender differences: all female interviewees, and especially those who are highly educated,
report that they use alcohol very seldom. Most of the male interviewees at this age,
especially men with a high education, report consuming alcohol quite frequently
Adults and older cohort: drunkenness among men, with positive
values. Negative connotations among women.
How has the relation to intoxication changed in Finland
from the 1960s up to now?
In Finland intoxication constitutes a very dominating
configuration
If it is hard to talk about intoxication as an integral part of Italian
drinking culture, in Finland it is hard to avoid talking about it
when analysing how people become part of the country’s drinking
culture.
How has the relation to intoxication changed in Finland
from the 1960s up to now?
The orientation towards
intoxication is not
homogeneous but articulated
as representing a variety of
subject positions.
ƒ There is a reduction in parents’ power as norm-setting
authorities in youngsters’ socialisation into drinking.
Correspondingly, the role of peer groups as a source
of values has been strengthened.
ƒ Youth, in general, is shaped as a more powerful and
independent position among the younger cohorts
compared to the older ones.
ƒ Drinking and intoxication among the younger cohorts
are usually pictured as an integral part of their
sociability.
ƒ The share of abstainers has grown among young
people. It seems that nowadays abstinence is a
possible alternative among young people.
How has the relation to intoxication changed in Finland
from the 1960s up to now?
Female cohorts alcohol
socialisation
• The oldest two female cohorts have only few own
experiences of being drunk.
• By contrast, for the youngest female cohort,
drunkenness is an ordinary, “normal” phenomenon, and
also the process of learning to drink is much more
coloured by binge drinking.
Contrasting Italy to Finland
Similarities
When we compare continuities and changes in the cultural position of drinking in Italy and
Finland, we can identify a progressive increase over time of consumption occasions in
these two countries.
We can also see that if the oldest and youngest cohorts are placed at the opposite ends of
a continuum, a progressive expansion of the range of consumption styles and use
values can be noted over time in both countries.
Furthermore, in both countries women have entered the drinking scenes and become
more independent actors in different kinds of drinking situations.
Like in Italy, we can also identify feminisation processes of drinking in Finland: in urban
settings, young people are expected to participate in drinking games involving more
feminine types of sensitivity.
Contrasting Italy to Finland
Differences
ƒ In Italy meal drinking and in Finland intoxication-oriented drinking have maintained their
position as prevailing drinking habits.
However, during the last 40 years the meal drinking tradition has become weaker in Italy
and to some extent young generations do experiment with binge drinking more freely
than older generations.
ƒ Unlike Finland, in Italy among all cohorts it is rare to have one’s first taste together with
peers, that first tastes for all groups most typically concerned wine and occurred at home
under parental guidance in a meal or domestic festive situation
ƒ Unlike Finland, in Italy intoxication-oriented drinking does not become a lasting practice
among adults