Chapter 11
Seven lifestyles1
Fredrik Miegel
INTRODUCTION
The lifestyles developed among the young of a given society contain significant information about the youth culture of that society. When studying young people's lifestyles, therefore, we study aspects of young people's culture. That is, we study youth culture. The concepts of lifestyle and culture are thus conceptually interwoven and can hardly be kept separate. Lifestyles are expressions of culture.
It is argued in Chapter 10 in this volume that lifestyle may be studied at different levels, and the same holds true for culture. The three different but interrelated levels at which lifestyle are determined – structural, positional, and individual (see Johansson and Miegel 1992; Lööv and Miegel 1989a) -are relevant also to the concept of culture. Besides the three levels of determination, there is, however, another important distinction to be made when it comes to the study of lifestyle and culture. This is the methodological distinction between two levels of analysis: the two levels we call the macro and the micro level. As pointed out by, for instance, Alexander and Giesen (1987), this is a purely analytical distinction:
We will argue that the macro-micro dichotomy should be viewed as an analytic distinction and that all attempts to link it to concrete dichotomies – such as ‘individual versus society’ or ‘action versus order’ - are fundamentally misplaced. Only if it is viewed analytically, moreover, can the linkage between micro and macro be achieved. (Alexander and Giesen 1987:1)
Alexander (1987) thus holds that there can be no empirical referents for micro or macro as such. Instead they are analytical contrasts within empirical units.
There can be no empirical referents for micro or macro as such. They are analytical contrasts, suggesting emergent levels within empirical units, not antagonistic empirical units themselves. (Alexander 1987: 290)
Although there is some confusion about what micro and macro actually are,most theoreticans seem to agree that a micro perspective is usually applied when studying interaction among individuals or small groups, whereas the macro perspective is used when studying those social structures within which the individuals operate. A good overview and discussion of the different meanings which the micro-macro distinction can have for different authors is supplied by Munch and Smelser (1987; cf. Giddens 1984/1989). The authors themselves prefer the following definition:
We see the micro level as involving encounters and patterned interaction among individuals (which would include communication, exchange, cooperation, and conflict) and the macro level as referring to those structures in society (groups, organizations, institutions, and culture productions) that are sustained (however imperfectly) by mechanisms of social control and that constitute both opportunities and constraints on individual behavior and interactions. (Munch and Smelser 1987: 357)
The definition suggested by Munch and Smelser clearly resembles that advocated by, for instance, Anthony Giddens, who describes the difference between the two levels like this:
The study of everyday behaviour in situations or face-to-face interaction is usually called microsociology. Macrosociology is the analysis of large scale social systems, such as a business firm, the political system or the economic order…
Macro analysis is essential if we are to understand the institutional background of day-to-day life. The ways in which people live their everyday lives are greatly affected by the broader institutional framework within which they exist…
Micro studies are in their turn necessary for illuminating broad institutional patterns. Face-to-face interaction is clearly the main basis of all forms of social organization, no matter how large in scale. (Giddens 1989/ 1991: 113f)
On the one hand, culture, as well as lifestyle, can be studied as a macro phenomenon, that is, as an important component of the societal structure. On the other, it can be studied as a micro phenomenon, that is, as an important aspect of people's everyday life. Culture is thus present both in the abstract structures of the system world, and in the more concrete structures of the lifeworld. On the macro level of analysis we are concerned with social and cultural structures, and with those positionally distinguished formations within the structures which set the framework for individual action and interaction. At this level of analysis we use observational data such as historical documents and aggregated individual data. The unit of study at the micro level is the single and unique individual possessing distinctive features and having established more or less unique relationships to the various social and cultural conditions to be found on the structural and positional levels of determination.
In this chapter I am basically interested in young people's everyday culture. It consists, on the one hand, of routines and practices aimed at securing the basic necessities of life and living, and, on the other, of dreams, thoughts, desires, longings and strivings. Everyday culture is homogeneous: it is constructed in relation to certain fundamental or basic values, norms, ideals, rules and beliefs common to most people within a given culture. It is, however, at the same time, heterogeneous: a vast number of different and partly contradictory cultural expressions coexist within the framework of a common overarching culture (Lööv and Miegel 1991).
The point of departure in this chapter is the assumption that the individual's choice of lifestyle and everyday life is not only determined by which society or culture that individual belongs to, or by which different positions the individual occupies within it. On the contrary. Within certain given cultural, social and material frames, people develop individual lifestyles. In this context, we thus use the notion of lifestyle to designate the individual's active choice of cultural expressions. People's dreams, desires, hopes, fears, ideals and goals in life are not completely governed by their social or cultural affiliations (although these, of course, are of utmost importance). Lifestyles are developed and maintained in the intersection between a) social and cultural structures, and b) the individual's own initiatives and actions.
In the remaining part of this chapter I shall briefly discuss different possible methods to employ when studying young people's lifestyles empirically. I shall argue for the importance of studying lifestyle from both a macro and a micro perspective, by means of different methods. Depending on which perspective we choose, we obtain very different information. But rather than looking upon the two perspectives as conflicting alternatives, I shall see them as complementary. I shall also discuss and account for some results obtained within the Media Panel Program, where a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods was used (Johansson and Miegel 1992).
GENERAL PATTERNS AND INDIVIDUAL VARIATIONS
Lifestyle is a rather complex and difficult concept with which to deal. There is, however, no need to discuss the concept of lifestyle and its relations to a number of related concepts such as value, identity, taste and style, in any detail here. (For discussions of these matters, see Chapters 1, 10 and 12 in this volume; see also Johansson and Miegel 1992). We note, however, that the empirical study of young people's lifestyles can be conducted from a large number of different perspectives; also, a variety of methods can be employed in order to capture different aspects of the phenomenon. We must, therefore, decide what kind of study we want to conduct, and what kind of information we want to obtain in order to choose adequate research methods and ways of collecting data.
Broadly speaking, there are at least two types of perspective to choose between. On the one hand, we may aim to identify what we shall here call general patterns of lifestyle, and, on the other, we may aim to capture what we shall refer to as individual variations of lifestyle. There is a third possibility, however. We may aim to capture both general patterns and individual variations. That was the strategy used in the particular study accounted for in this chapter.
DIFFERENT STRATEGIES, DIFFERENT INFORMATION
In the particular study on which this chapter builds, two different methods of investigating young people's lifestyles were employed. A quantitative analysis was carried out, and also a qualitative analysis in the form of seven case studies was conducted. This combination of quantitative and qualitative data is a strategy well suited for studying various aspects of lifestyle. The advantages of using multiple methods – often referred to as triangulation – have been observed and discussed by numerous researchers (see Denzin 1970/ 1978; Jensen and Jankowski 1991; Taylor and Bogdan 1984).
Triangulation is often thought of as a way of guarding against researcher bias and checking out accounts from different informants. By drawing on other types and sources of data, observers also gain a deeper and clearer understanding of the setting and people being studied. (Taylor and Bogdan 1984: 68)
In Johansson and Miegel (1992) we quantitatively identified a number of rather abstract and general patterns of taste in film and popular music and leisure time activities among the 21 year olds included in our sample. The patterns which we distinguished in this way are to a considerable extent the products of the measuring instruments used. The latter represent operationalizations or indicators of lifestyles; the taste and activity patterns used in our study can all be seen as possible and very likely components of young people's lifestyles. On the basis of the operationalizations selected for the examination of taste and leisure time activities, we thus arrived at a number of music taste patterns, film taste patterns and leisure time activity patterns, which provide at least a rough picture of how tastes and activities are related and distributed in this particular age-group in Swedish society (see Chapter 10).
The reasons for distinguishing such patterns are manifold. Most important is that they may serve as lifestyle indicators. We can apply the taste and activity patterns in analyses of the way the different patterns are structured along dimensions such as gender, class, education, age, etc. We can also get a rough estimation of how large a part of the population belongs to each of these patterns. Finally we can analyse the relations between these patterns and a number of other variables of interest, for example, values and attitudes in various areas.
Although we could have called these patterns lifestyles, we refrained from so doing, since when statistically identifying patterns of taste or activities in one area or another, we consider only a limited segment of lifestyle patterns in society. It is more accurate, therefore, to call these patterns taste and activity patterns rather than lifestyles. In order to reach a more thorough understanding of the individual's lifestyle, one must consider a wide range of attitudes and actions based on all the different types of value embraced by the individual. When sorting young people into different categories on the basis of, for instance, their musical taste only, lifestyle becomes, of course, defined in terms of taste in music, which means that neither attitudes based on other aesthetic values, nor attitudes based on other types of value – material, political, ethical, metaphysical, etc. – are included in the definition.
Making use of the notion of ideal types, one can quantitatively discern a number of more or less clearly articulated lifestyle patterns within a society by operationalizing and measuring phenomena considered to be relevant as lifestyle indicators of that society. Further theoretical refinement of the various patterns thus distinguished can allow them to be conceived in a gradually purer form, so that they finally represent what we may call ideal types of lifestyle.
Whereas such general patterns of tastes and activities may be very useful for understanding major trends in the lifestyles of youth culture, they do not tell us very much about how particular individuals build their own individual lifestyle. To arrive at such an understanding, intensive studies of a number of single individuals are required.
Individuals within a society take on elements from several of these lifestyle patterns, and depending on which pattern is predominant for a given individual, one can locate him or her within one or more ideal types of lifestyle. Most individuals have characteristics which make them candidates for more than one – sometimes even seemingly contradictory – lifestyles. The ideal types of lifestyle are aggregates consisting of individually determined characteristics, and are thus analysed from a macro perspective. In fact, however, every individual has her or his own personal and unique lifestyle, that is, something which we may call an individual lifestyle. In order to cope with this dilemma we must move to the micro level. Individual lives are, of course, partly determined by structural and positional characteristics. However, within existing societal structures individuals also adopt their own, specific, individual lifestyles. These should be studied at the micro level of analysis.
One of the main theses in Do the Right Thing (Johansson and Miegel 1992) was that, although in order to arrive at a basic picture of young Swedes’ lifestyles it is both possible and meaningful to identify and distinguish empirically a number of general patterns of lifestyle in the areas of leisure time activities and tastes in popular music and film, and whereas we could assign each of the some 300 individuals included in our sample to one or more of the taste and activity patterns we distinguished, this is nevertheless not enough if we are to understand the role and importance of the lifestyle phenomenon for the individuals themselves. To accomplish this, we must also carry out intensive studies of single individuals and their specific lifestyles.
Therefore, during a three-year period, we conducted a number of intensive case studies in an attempt to comprehend the core of the individual lifestyle, which are the individual's own and unique way of structuring a multitude of cultural artefacts and phenomena. The general patterns which we constructed by means of different statistical methods are important, for they visualize the unity within the diversity of Swedish youth culture. The case studies, in their turn, illustrate the diversity within the unity portrayed by our theoretical and empirical lifestyle constructions. One of the main reasons for carrying out such very time-consuming case studies is that they provide us with information about both the regularities and the peculiarities in young people's lifestyles. They give information about how individuals use culture to express their adherence to different social and cultural groupings, and they indicate how they use culture to express their own individuality and uniqueness. The case studies may thus shed some light on conflicts resulting from the individual's cleavage between a private and a public self, between individuality and sociability, etc.
As a research endeavor, the case study contributes uniquely to our knowledge of individual, organizational, social and political phenomena… the distinctive need for case studies arises out of the desire to understand complex phenomena. In brief, the case study allows an investigation to retain the holistic and meaningful characteristics of real-life events – such as individual life cycles, organizational and managerial processes, neighborhood change, international relations, and the maturation of industries. (Yin 1984: 14)
The case study method has several advantages, especially when combined with other quantitative and qualitative methods. Randy Stoecker (1991) discusses the application and the advantages of the case study, arguing that case studies may be used as a means of showing specific processes involved both in general trends and in exceptions to such trends. In this manner the case study method can be used to make measurement instruments and predictions more specific (see Yin 1984).
The importance of having an elaborated theoretical framework when using case studies has often been stressed by social sciences (see Jensen and Jankowski 1991; Mitchell 1983; Stoecker 1991; Yin 1984).
In case studies statistical inference is not involved at all. Instead the inferential process turns exclusively on the theoretically necessary linkages among the features of the case study. The validity of the extrapolation depends not on the typicality or representativeness of the case study but upon the cogency of the theoretical reasoning. (Mitchell 1983: 207)
Although Stoecker (1991) argues that theory plays an important role in case studies, he also emphasizes the difficulties involved.
Theorizing ‘idiosyncrasy’ then, refers to bringing all possible theoretical perspectives to bear, and discarding and weighing each until we have built a valid and useful explanation. The difficulty involves determining the extent to which we rely on theory to guide us in choosing what to look for and how to explain what we find. Just how much to rely on theory, and thus risk missing important idiosyncrasies of particular cases, or restrain theory and thus risk overemphasizing the idiosyncratic, is a tricky question. (Stoecker 1991: 102)
In Do the Right Thing (Johansson and Miegel 1992) we tried to solve this problem in different ways. First, we used a fairly open theory which took account of the main contributions thus far to an emerging, overall theory of lifestyle. Second, we introduced the distinction between ideal types of lifestyle and individual lifestyles briefly discussed above. Third, in discussing the case studies we also drew on the results of the more general quantitative study. In all, this enabled us to capture both general tendencies in young people's lifestyles and idiosyncracies inherent in the individual lifestyles.
Validity is a problem when using the case study method. According to Stoecker (1991) the best validity check comes from the participants themselves. Even if participants do not agree with the theoretical explanations provided by the researchers, they must agree that the behaviours, tastes and attitudes we attribute to them are indeed their behaviours, tastes and attitudes. Such a validity test was also made during the case studies included in our study. Our respondents read and commented on our descriptions of them during the three years we followed them. Our descriptions coincided almost perfectly with the respondents' own views. The validity of our descriptions may, therefore, be considered as high.
TWO LIFESTYLES …
The seven individuals chosen for case studies belonged to the statistically most typical representatives of two statistically identified ideal types of lifestyle. They were thus strategically chosen. As previously mentioned, the questionnaires used within the later Media Panel Program data collection waves contain a large number of lifestyle-related questions (about, for instance, tastes in music, film, clothes, actors and leisure time activities, etc.). On the basis of such items we constructed a scale for measuring gender specific cultural patterns or lifestyles. The outcome was one male and one female pattern, or two ideal types of lifestyle.
The male lifestyle was characterized, among other things, by preferences for heavy metal and heavy rock music, thriller and horror books, science fiction and action films, and the like.
The female lifestyle included preferences for romantic media content, in books, films and music, an interest for fashion and domestically oriented leisure time activities, and so on.
The two ideal types of lifestyle were rather distinct and clear-cut. Therefore, they serve well to describe some of the gender-related lifestyle variations among young Swedish adults. The two patterns thus provide us with some substantial information about how tastes and leisure time interests differ along the gender dimension. As a matter of fact, the two patterns give a good general picture of the differences in these areas between young men's and women's cultural spheres in contemporary Sweden. Despite its significance and usefulness in the study of the relation between gender roles and lifestyles, the picture obtained is nevertheless rather abstract, as we shall see. (This abstractness, of course, is its very point. There are also other points to be made, however.)
… OR SEVEN?
Altogether we met the seven young people included in the case study on three different occasions. The method used is probably best described as in-depth qualitative interviewing, a method described by Taylor and Bogdan in the following way:
By in-depth qualitative interviewing we mean repeated face-to-face encounters between the researcher and informants directed toward understanding informants’ perspectives on their lives, experiences, or situations as expressed in their own words. (Taylor and Bogdan 1984: 77)
The length of the interviews varied from two to three hours; they were recorded on tape and later transcribed in order to facilitate our analysis of the material. We managed to establish a very good relationship generally with these young people. The interviews were thus characterized by a great deal of openness and trust. The interviews were based upon questions concerning the individuals' values, tastes and leisure time interests. The informants were asked to try to recapitulate their lives, that is, telling us about persons and events in the past which had influenced their lives in one way or another, so as to supply us with what is best described as their life histories.
In the life history, the researcher attempts to capture the salient experiences in a person's life and that person's definitions of those experiences. The life history presents people's views on their lives in their own words, much the same as in a common autobiography. (Taylor and Bogdan 1984: 78)
Each case study also contained a so-called life plan. The informants were asked to describe their future in two ways: as they thought it would be, and how they wanted it to be. In the following, I shall briefly account for the seven cases separately. The presentation contains a number of quotations from the interviews, and in order to make these quotations accessible for the reader I have combined quotations from different parts of the interviews. Where this is done, it is marked in the text. In order to protect their integrity and to ensure their anonymity, we have changed the names of our interviewees, as well as other pieces of information which might otherwise reveal their identity. I cannot, unfortunately, give but a rather summary account of the case studies here. For a full description of the seven cases and our analyses of them, see Johansson and Miegel (1992) (see also Lööv and Miegel (1989b; 1991)). In this chapter only brief descriptions of the individual's lifestyles may be offered; most of their reported life histories and life plans have had to be left out. What remains, nevertheless, illustrates well how different the seven individual lifestyles were, and how different the meanings the seven young people ascribed to their behaviour, tastes, interests and so on in spite of the fact that all of them belonged to one of two main ideal types of lifestyle.
Case one: Magical mystery Tor
Tor grew up in a lower middle-class family; he had completed two different schools oriented towards graphic design. Tor devoted most of his time to two main interests: he constructed and took part in so-called role games within the fantasy genre; he also sketched and painted. His plans for the future were concrete and well-defined, and his occupational plans and extra-curricular activities almost totally overlapped. He wanted to become a draughtsman or an illustrator, preferably within the genres of fantasy or science fiction.
Hopefully I'll become a commercial artist, or a cover designer for books, book jackets or games and such things. I like to draw fantasy characters like dragons and monsters… I'd like to develop this form of art in making book jackets or book covers, but I'll probably not get the chance to do this for a long time. However, this is what I'm aiming at.
Tor was indeed very purposeful in his ambitions. He was deeply committed to his interests in drawing and in fantasy culture, and these interests formed the dominant elements in his cultural identity. During his leisure time, Tor designed and constructed fantasy games; he also painted mythical motifs, themes from fairy tales and fantasy stories. He was also a member of a fantasy club where he could attend lectures and play role games and the like. His devotion to the fantasy culture was expressed also in his cultural tastes.
Most of the films I care for are fantasy and science fiction, or other types of adventure films, like, for instance, Indiana Jones. George Lucas and Steven Spielberg are my favourite directors. I also like Harrison Ford. I seldom watch any really ‘deep’ or ‘serious’ films. In my opinion, people should go to the movies to be entertained and excited, not to become depressed… On the rock scene, my favourites right now are ‘The Mission', ‘Magnum’ and ‘Gandalf. I bought ‘Gandalf because of their name. It's one of Tolkien's characters, but I discovered that the music was really good, too… From what I say about books I guess you understand that it's mainly fantasy books I'm reading. I also read quite a bit of horror fiction, and some occult stuff.
During the three years we followed Tor, he continually developed his interests in painting and fantasy culture, and they became increasingly integrated into his personality and lifestyle. He was an imaginative and artistically talented person, skilfully balancing between the realms of fantasy and reality. Although he dreamed about becoming a recognized artist, he knew this was basically a dream. His actual plans for the future were much more realistic. Among the seven young people we followed, he was probably the one with the most stable identity. He was sure about, and satisfied with, who he was and what he wanted to do and become.
I'm determined to become an illustrator. You have to have a goal, and I know that I'll become an illustrator, one way or another. At first I might have to work at an office doing something simple, but as you learn the trade you can do more and more, and finally you'll have enough knowledge and skill to do what you want. Maybe I'll have to get more education. There's an interesting school in Copenhagen, and there's a private school in Stockholm that I've been thinking about… I wouldn't mind being an artist, but to be one you have to be damned lucky. You need to become recognized and known. What you do is basically the same as when you're an illustrator. The difference is that as an artist you have no regular customers, no secure income. Art is something you create in your leisure time.
Like many young people's lifestyles, Tor's lifestyle was closely related to popular culture. Popular culture serves a double function for young people. They use it to explore, develop and express what they consider to be their unique personal identity, and they use it to show their adherence to various groups and persons.
This double function was obvious in Tor's case. For him it was the engagement in a variety of activities associated with the fantasy genre. He spent his leisure time playing role games with his friends, and he was a member of an international fantasy organization. A fundamental feature of Tor's involvement with popular culture was that he created it rather than merely consumed it. He constructed role games, wrote adventure stories, painted fantasy motifs, etc.
It would seem that the overriding element in Tor's identity and in his personality was his need and desire to make use of his imagination and artistic talent. His interest in the popular cultural sphere of fantasy can thus be regarded as a result of his more fundamental personal characteristics. That fantasy was his main popular cultural interest may be explained by the fact that the fantasy genre better than any other form of popular culture provided him with opportunities to utilize his imagination and artistic creativity. It helped him to develop his cultural competence, and through his engagement in role games, fantasy clubs, and the like, he strengthened and developed his social competences.
Case two: The dancing queen
Anna-Karin grew up in a working-class family, and she was working as a nursery school teacher. She had no plans to change her occupation in the future, and was fully satisfied with working with children.
Her tastes in music and film were rather mainstream. She was not very interested in either music or film, but listened to what was played on the radio and occasionally went to see some of the popular American films going the rounds. The same held true for her literary taste. She did not read very much, but when she did, she read bestsellers by, say, Judith Krantz or Jackie Collins.
Anna-Karin's most dominant interest was dance. For a long period of time she had been a member of a team of folk-dancers, and she was active as a leader and instructor. She was also a member of the team's committee. Her interest in folk-dancing was expressed not only through dancing, but she also read a lot of books on the subject.
I dance folk-dance and I'm an instructor for the youth team. This takes quite a bit of time. We practise once a week, but we also have lots of courses and performances. Last weekend, for example, we were off performing down in Germany. We also have performances quite often in Malmö and in the vicinity… I'm really fond of Schottische, Hambo, and other types of big festival dances, since they have so many rotations and you're doing different things all the time. Everything has to match if it's going to work out all right. Weave Rough Homespun is a really nice dance symbolizing weaving. There are eight couples standing in a line, and there are lots of fusions which are supposed to be the weaving. You bend down again and again, and you're active all the time. Then we have the Frykdals-dance. It's quite a difficult dance, and it takes a long time to learn, but when you know it, it's really great to dance. English For Three Couples is another dance that's difficult – that is, before you know how to do it, since everyone is doing things at the same time… I've become ever more interested in folk-dance and everything surrounding it. I read a lot of different books and I have lots of notebooks I use to research, which keeps me busy all the time. The costumes are really interesting. They have so many symbols, and ornaments symbolizing different things. These symbols are so abundant. Many are about marriage and such things… We've had courses that deal with costumes, with dance, and with handicraft. All these things are part of our history. I have a costume with a white blouse and a big loose top, with a waist and waistcoat. It has lots of silver jewellery, and buckles on it, and a chain. All this had meaning, showing how rich you were. The costumes we use nowadays were once used only by the rich.
Apart from folk-dancing, Anna-Karin was very interested in fashion and sewing, and when she did not work or dance, she sewed. On the whole Anna-Karin, much like Tor, had a genuine need to create and to express herself aesthetically, not with the aim of gaining recognition from others, but rather to develop her own competence and skills in different areas.
I find it rather enjoyable to look for sewing patterns and to see if they turn out the way I thought. I feel I create something. I haven't got enough imagination to design clothes myself, except for simple things. Sometimes my friends ask me if I can make them a dress or whatever, then I make it and hope it will fit… The more you sew, the more experienced you become, so you can make more complicated things. It's stimulating with such small challenges… Being creative is important. Besides my sewing, dancing also contains creative elements. I try to use rhythm and motion in my work. Many children who have difficulties with reading and writing also have problems with their movement.
Anna-Karin showed a social consciousness in the sense of being highly concerned about the welfare of physically and mentally disabled children, of children with problematic home situations, and the like. She tried in many ways to help such children develop their capacities in her nursery school work. She also did a lot of reading about physically and mentally disabled children and about different methods used to help them. This concern for others suggests that ethical values constituted an important part of her value system. However, her interest in expressing herself aesthetically also characterized her. This suggests strong aesthetic values as well. Anna-Karin's lifestyle was strongly influenced by both her aesthetic and her ethical values, attitudes and actions. She was not much concerned about what other people might think of her lifestyle. What was important to her was to be satisfied with, and to make use of, her creativity, by developing and enhancing her skills and competence within the areas of folk-dancing, sewing and child care. This was important for her, not because it increased her social or cultural status; basically, it increased her own satisfaction and helped her to develop her cultural identity and lifestyle.
Case three: The mother
Sonja grew up in a lower middle-class family. She worked on and off as a nurse's aid. Her thoughts regarding her future were rather diffuse, but she wanted a job with much freedom and travelling. During our first two interviews with Sonja she expressed dreams about being a photographer or a film director, though she knew that these dreams were hard to realize. She also expressed a strong desire to travel. Travelling was, no doubt, her major leisure time interest. She wanted to see the world. Therefore, she had spent a year in Israel working in a kibbutz, and half a year in Iceland working as a fisherwoman.
Since we last met I've been to Mallorca for two weeks and I was also working in Iceland last autumn as a fisherwoman. I'd really like to travel more, preferably to Asia or South America. I certainly don't have any plans at the moment to go there, but it would be nice to spend a year or so there. I could also imagine living abroad for a couple of years, or having a job where you travel a lot… I thought about becoming a photographer, so I applied for a kind of media education, but there was only room for sixteen persons so they didn't let me start. I'll probably have to attend a lot of evening classes instead, but right now it's hard to find the time… In one way or another, I think it would be great to work with pictures. You can always dream, of course, about having the opportunity to make a film and to stand behind the camera.
Sonja's cultural tastes were clearly influenced by her interest in travelling. Her favourite author was Leon Uris, and she listened much to so-called world music, especially music influenced by Spanish rhythms. Considering her dreams about becoming a film director or a photographer, it was only natural that she was very interested in film. She watched almost everything, from Fassbinder films to the Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
When we met Sonja the third time, she had given up almost all her dreams of becoming a film director or a photographer. Also her interest in travelling had decreased. The reason was that she was expecting a child. She had not totally abandoned her dreams, but she had come to realize that she probably was never to achieve them. Instead she thought much of her future role as a mother. She wanted a safe, comfortable and secure life for herself and her child. She was also preparing for marriage and family life. She was looking forward to having a child, a house, and a husband. Security was very important to Sonja.
Probably I'll be moving into a terraced house. But I'm still working at the hospital. And in January I'm going to become a mother. I like that. I keep growing and growing… I still have the same dreams, but they've become weaker. First I have to think about my child. In a few years I'll start working again. It'll probably be the same kind of job as I had before. It's nothing I'm looking forward to, I don't think it's so great. I know I'll probably never achieve the dreams I have. To do that you've got to be lucky, and usually I don't have that much luck. Well I'm not pessimistic. I'm pretty realistic. It depends on your ambitions. You can always aim at the stars, but I'll probably only reach the grass-roots. But I don't care. The important thing is to have a stable income.
During our first two interviews, Sonja wanted to experience different cultures and express herself aesthetically in the areas of film and photography. This had changed dramatically by the third interview. Whereas previously she was continually searching for new influences and experiences, she had now found her place in reality. Sonja's change of lifestyle was clearly related to the fact that she had become pregnant (which, of course, is one of the most crucial changes in a woman's life). Her desire to find and create meaning in life through travelling, experiencing different cultures and meeting people from other cultures, as well as her desire to create and express herself aesthetically, diminished when she found another way to create meaning in her life. This new meaning was anchored in giving birth to and raising a child, and in living a good family life. Sonja's lifestyle had become almost entirely related to living a family life.
Case four: Wounded knee
Agneta grew up in a lower middle-class family. She graduated from high school with special training as an assistant nurse and was working at an orthopaedic clinic. Her plans for the future were very uncertain, most of them having the character of fleeting dreams and immediate impulses. A common theme in them was, however, the hope of being able to travel. She was not very satisfied with the job she had, but did not know what to do instead.
I don't feel so good at my job. I'm looking for another one, any kind of job where they don't require anything more than a high school education. I've applied for a job at a travel agency. I'm so tired of the the medical area, nothing but work, not rewarding at all. I've thought about applying for nurses’ training but I'm not at all sure I want to continue working in medical care. It's hard not knowing what you want to do. I'll soon be 22. Everybody seems to have their dreams, but I don't have any real dreams at all… I'd like to become an air hostess. It must really be great to travel so much. I would probably rather become an air hostess than a tourist guide. Yes, it would probably suit me well to be an air hostess. I really ought to apply for the air hostess course, but I'm too lazy… It bothers me that I never get going on things, and that I have a job I don't feel satisfied with.
As long as she could remember, Agneta's major leisure time interest had been playing and watching soccer, live and on TV. But because of a wounded knee she was forced to give up her soccer career. This was quite a blow for her, because before that her life had been totally dominated by soccer.
Actually I don't have any leisure time interests left since I quit playing soccer. I was active for eight years. My knee-cap was broken. It was a girl who kicked me on the knee. It was really hard to be forced to stop playing soccer. I grew up in a soccer family. My brother, father, sister – they all play soccer. Soccer meant so much to me. You had so many friends, the team spirit and all the fun to go with it. It feels really bad to have to be without it.
During our first two interviews with Agneta she was rather pessimistic about life and her future. It was really hard for her to cope with the fact that she was never going to be able to play soccer again. It made her depressed and coloured her attitudes towards other aspects of life as well.
When we met Agneta the last time she had become a little bit more optimistic, but nevertheless returned, during the interview, over and over again to the burden of not being able to play soccer. She still did not know what she wanted to do in the future, and had developed a laissez-faire kind of lifestyle and a rather hedonistic attitude towards living. ‘Why care about tomorrow, it is now that you live’ seemed to have become her motto.
I think it's important to enjoy yourself while you're young. Not that I'm afraid of getting old, but I'm afraid of how fast time flies. Why not have fun while you're young?
Agneta's desire to make the most of life while she was young, and not to worry too much about the future, could be interpreted as an indication that she was the one among the seven informants who went through the most dynamic lifestyle and identity changes. She did not know what she wanted or what would become of her. She thought of herself as not mature enough to plan for the future. She first had to find out who she was and what she really wanted to do. She had no fixed lifestyle, but one that was constantly changing. This state of affairs can be explained at least partly by the difficulties she experienced when she had to give up soccer, her major interest. During the earlier part of her youth, almost everything circled around soccer. Soccer thus constituted the fundamental component of her identity and lifestyle. In a sense, when she suddenly lost soccer, she lost her lifestyle and part of her identity as well, finding herself forced to develop a new one. For many years, however, she was incapable of replacing soccer. This created problems for her in finding meaning in other areas of life. One might say that Agneta went through a minor identity crisis, which she finally managed to solve, at least partly. She still missed soccer, but she had come to realize that even though she would never be able completely to replace it, there were other ways in which she might develop herself and her lifestyle.
Case five: The twentieth-century girl
Annika grew up in an upper middle-class family. After completing three years of the social studies curriculum at high school she began studying at the university. Characteristic of Annika was that she had rather clear-cut thoughts about her future profession. She was a girl of high ambitions, and she wanted a job that could promote her personal growth. She had taken some courses at the university in the area of marketing, which was the area in which she wanted to work in the future.
I know what I want to do. I want to work with marketing. I've been interested in it for a long time. I just can't change my mind about it. I've started to learn how things work within the marketing area. It's got the creative aspect that appeals to me. Thinking about getting a job is a problem. You know, I don't just want any job, it's got to suit me. It has to allow me to develop as a person.
Annika's leisure time interests and tastes were clearly associated with her studies and plans for her future occupation. She was aesthetically minded. Interior decorating, art, literature and music composed important aspects of her lifestyle. Annika's taste was rather distinct and can be characterized as conventional ‘high culture'.
Both my boyfriend and I have become interested in art. In this way we've come to visit different art exhibitions. Art has made me realize that something can be really strange but still very good. However, if you want to reach most people with it, it also has to be realistic… At home I like to listen to Vivaldi, and it can be nice listening to good opera music and modern jazz… I'm quite fond of somewhat odd films, but now and then I also like to see an American film. The former kind of films have a more lasting value. Still, Tom Cruise is the ail-American guy and I can't deny the fact that I like him… I read quite a lot. I don't like detective stories. I read Jan Guillou [a Swedish popular author of agent novels], but I didn't like him at all. What I'm most fond of is stories about everyday life. I like authors who can describe life as it is.
Most of Annika's mass media use was oriented towards gathering information and knowledge, but now and then she escaped into a romantic love story. She was very ambivalent towards reading romantic novels. Although she liked to read them, she expressed her distaste for them. She had the same attitude towards the films she saw, and she felt that some activities – like reading weekly gossip magazines, engaging in fashion, idolizing handsome film stars and reading romance stories – were natural parts of a young girl's development.
I also read those sickly-sweet novels, of course. They don't give you anything in return, but it can be an amusing pastime. It's dreaming and forgetting reality. It's a kind of escape, you know, not because I dislike reality the way it is, but still it's a nice feeling to read a romantic novel… This Friday Cocktail was released, with Tom Cruise, an actor who's that kind of handsome guy who all girls like… I buy a lot of clothes I guess, even if it's become less now. I'm not as fixed on it as I was earlier. But anyhow it's probably a pretty common thing for most girls my age.
During the three years we followed Annika, she gradually became more certain of herself. She matured and developed a more stable identity and lifestyle. At the first interview her taste was rather mainstream, common to girls of her age. By the time of our second meeting she had become aware of the distinction between high culture and popular culture. She referred primarily to high culture in describing her tastes, but also admitted that she still consumed what she described as cheap and vulgar cultural goods. The third time we met her, she did not make such clear distinctions. She had become more self-confident and more certain of her tastes. It was not as important to her what others thought of her tastes. She had become self-confident enough to have her own opinion of what she liked, and to accept those things in her taste of which she had felt a bit ashamed earlier. She described herself thus:
Young, curious, has partly decided what she wants to do in life, but still pretty mouldable. Rather influenced by advertising, likes quality, has some cultural interests. A twentieth-century girl. I suppose I aim at this thing of becoming something. Not merely for the money, but to get the money to buy that particular table. To be able to live somewhat outside everyday life, that's important.
Case six: The medicine man
Lasse grew up in a middle-class family. After graduating from high school he started to work within the building trade. He also took law courses at the university. He regarded himself as a theoretician and, consequently, he felt-that the right path for him was to carry on with his academic studies. He aimed to become a doctor, and was rather determined to actually become one.
I've always wanted to become a doctor and that's what I'm going to be. It's the only thing that feels right. I've read quite a bit about medicine, so it would be nice to get started in medical school. There are new ways of applying now which may increase my chances of getting in… I've pretty definite plans, but it's still possible to change. You've got to always have some sort of escape route. I could imagine myself as a builder, but if everything works out as I want to, I'll become a doctor.
During the first interview with Lasse, his main leisure time interests were karate and music. He played in several rock bands, and devoted many hours a week to karate training to keep himself fit. He then had some dreams about becoming a professional musician, a rock star, but by the second interview he had given up those dreams. He had also ceased karate training. Instead he had developed a new interest in scuba-diving and amateur archaeology. The music, however, was still important to him.
My dreams of becoming a professional musician were shattered. I had some ideas about applying to a music school, but it didn't turn out that way because of my parents, and maybe that was good. But I think I would have been happy as a poor musician. Somewhere deep inside me I still have that dream, but it's far away now. I suppose it was those boyish dreams; they've changed a bit. You become aware of what it's really all about. For example, playing the piano professionally takes a lot of time, so you have to accept it as a hobby. I suppose there's a certain bitterness over the fact that it never came into being… I played in a pretty well-known group before, and if I had quit school I could still have been playing with them. But I've no regrets. I've gone through all that and realized that it doesn't feel so bad if you are forced to accept something. What I'm doing today is my own free choice and it feels all right. But it took some careful consideration. If you've spent two and a half years in high school you don't quit like that. There are kind of norms from those around you, friends and parents. I could be furious about such norms when I was younger. I was a member of a country band once, and we really were top level. It was a full-time job and they have a record contract now. I've become calmer about it now, I'm not that angry anymore… I've almost entirely abandoned karate. Music… well, I listen a lot but I play less. I've got rid of all my electric equipment and bought myself an acoustic piano, which was a good move. Now I play when I want to, not because I have to. The electronics were so pretentious. But karate I'll probably never pick up again. I'm doing a lot of scuba-diving in the Sound. I help some environmental researchers take samples. It's fun but it's also scary. You know, in ten or twelve years there won't be any oxygen left, no vegetation, no animal life. It will be completely dead. Also, I help some marine archaeologists diving for wrecked viking ships. It's really interesting when you find a piece of wood or something and the archaeologists make sense of it and tell you what it is. It's really fantastic. I read a lot about it. It's a great feeling being down in the deep, looking for Swedish history.
Lasse's tastes were, just as Annika's, rather high culture but also included, as he expressed it himself, ‘a lot of shit'. In Lasse's tastes popular culture and high culture coexisted naturally. He did not make as hard distinctions as Annika. He was not ashamed of listening to heavy metal or punk music and watching cheap action films and thrillers, but he clearly knew the difference in status between the different cultural products he consumed.
Maybe it's easier to get heavily carried away by modern music, but listening to classical music, like Mozart, for example, makes you quite poetical. When it comes to modern music, I listen to a lot of trash and American West Coast rock, and to ‘Docenterna’, ‘Ebba Gron’ and that kind of stuff. You become a little bit nostalgic. When it comes to modern music I'm not changing my tastes. I'll probably be an old man when the rock bands I listen to stop playing. ‘Tubes’', ‘Scritti Politti’, ‘Van Halen’ have been there all along, and they've been releasing records all the time… I like both commercial films and other types of film. I spend more time now watching films than before. I watch a lot of documentaries, like portrayals of different countries, descriptions of nature, films with an educational purpose… I watch quite a few trash films. For instance, I saw a Dolph Lundgren film, it was real rubbish, just like My Stepmother Is an Alien was. Those are real junk films… Shit films are good, because for a couple of hours you can rest your brain. The bad thing is that everything is so stereotyped and show-offish, but sometimes there are some really good parts in those films… Portrayals of family relations, problem films, and films about ordinary families, I think, tend to be good.
Lasse's lifestyle developed considerably during the three years we studied him. In the beginning he was rather self-centred and occupied with his own development. By the end of our study he had become much more concerned about his relationships with others. He almost entirely gave up the individual leisure activities in which he used to be involved and had replaced them with activities of a group character. His interest in scuba-diving was closely connected with his concern for the environment and ecological problems. He had also become interested in psychology and people's psychological well-being.
Case seven: The spirit in the sky
Tobias grew up in a lower middle-class family. He graduated from a high school programme specializing in metal industry work. Tobias was the only one of the seven informants who had been a member of a genuine youth subculture.
I constantly questioned everything the teachers said, so they wanted to get rid of me. For that reason, I was thrown out, in ninth grade and had to start again in a new school. I've probably been some kind of a problem child. I really felt good when I was accepted by this gang. I became a kind of psychiatrist for these guys. I got involved with a heavy gang of punks or whatever they were. Long shabby hair, rivets on their jackets, leather jackets with fifteen zippers, tight black trousers, ragged jeans, constant boozing, and lots of cursing. Not exactly the dream of a mother-in-law. I spent most of my time with them and I enjoyed it, but I was dressed the same as now. It was trash metal, hardcore, well it's the same shit. They were problem children… We weren't criminal in any way, but if they were harassed or drank too much beer, they often beat somebody up. Several of them have been nailed for assault and battery. One of the guys works as a bouncer in a porno-club in the USA, but he's trying to get something going with his music.
At the same time as Tobias was spending most of his time with this gang, he also met Christian people, and he was a member of the youth organization of the Swedish State Church. In this organization he developed a faith of his own in his strong belief in Jesus and God. He also developed plans to become a parish assistant and a recreation leader, and even considered being a clergyman in the future.
It all started after confirmation. I then began taking part in youth activities in church. It was not exactly a religious thing. Instead, you treated the place just like any kind of youth recreation centre… And then, well, I just discovered that this was the way it was. It came sneaking upon me, so to say. It took probably two or three years. And then when you started believing in things, you were eager to know more about them… I felt I wanted to become a parish assistant. I wanted to work with people on the basis of my faith. I felt it would be really terrific. I applied to this school but was rejected. Later I heard that you could work and get practical experience, so I moved to Stockholm and stayed there for a year with a really lousy standard of living. Then I was accepted at the school, and I've been here for a year now this summer. I can't see anything negative about it. Theology, education, psychology, almost everything is nice and I benefit privately from it too…I've got some thoughts about becoming a clergyman, but then I'd have to study quite a lot. These are only small, very small, thoughts. You don't simply become a clergyman, it's a vocation, a pretty heavy one, and in fact more than a profession, it's a way of living. When you're hungry you know it; when you feel called, you know what to do. It's simply a feeling you get.
Tobias's lifestyle was very complex; from a conventional point of view, it contained incoherent and inconsistent elements. His Christian faith was combined with his taste in such seemingly contradictory music genres as speed metal, trash metal, punk and Christian music. He watched violent films, but also Christian films. Also his leisure time interests were quite varied. He took part in different kinds of sport activity, spent a great deal of time photographing and processing photos, he made his own video films, participated in church services, and read books. He was also interested in guitar playing and in old cars. He owned an Austin A-35 from 1957, which he liked to work with now and then. He was eager to play down his being a Christian, and felt that his daily lifestyle was not particularly influenced by his Christian faith. For example, he had always been rather fond of hanging around in bars, and he did not change this habit when he became a Christian. Drinking beer had taken on a new meaning for him, however. Through drinking beer, smoking and swearing, Tobias wanted to counteract the prejudices he felt many young poeple had against Christians.
If I go to a pub, and I do that a lot, I often end up talking with somebody about what I'm doing. When I tell them I'm at a Christian school, their mouths often drop. They seem rather puzzled and surprised at my using bad language, drinking a few beers, laughing, and even occasionally going for a pee.
Tobias's studies, future plans, leisure time activities, and tastes in popular culture were all coloured by his metaphysical convictions. At the same time, he was rather concerned about what other people thought of him. Consequently he deliberately used different symbols and artefacts to express and visualize his taste and style. He did this in order not to be identified, as he expressed it, as a boring Christian. Tobias's style, therefore, can be seen as a symbolic expression of his need to express what he considered as his unique and individual way of relating both to Christianity and to profane culture.
CONCLUDING DISCUSSION
In this chapter I have been preoccupied with the study of lifestyle using qualitative interviews and case studies. I have, however, also argued for the advantages of combining quantitative and qualitative data when studying a phenomenon as complex as lifestyle. The Media Panel Program, of course also contains a substantial amount of aggregated individual quantitative data. Within the project both sources have been used to illuminate different aspects of lifestyle. The rather abstract patterns of culture, identified in the quantitative part of the study, may serve as a map against which the dynamic character of an individual's lifestyle stands out. In studying individual lifestyles, one is studying subtle variations which are impossible to capture by means of the instruments used to identify more general patterns of culture. Looking at the brief portraits of the seven individuals, we can conclude that each of them can be described in terms of such general patterns, and that they also deviate from them in various and important respects.
Although this statement may seem obvious and self-evident, it is nevertheless important, since herein lies the key to the distinction between ideal aggregated lifestyles and individual lifestyles. Whereas the former term designates general, theoretically, methodologically and empirically constructed patterns of culture common to several individuals, the latter term designates the individual's relations to such patterns. Whereas the former concept is used to distinguish characteristics common to a large number of people so as to characterize them in terms of a limited number of lifestyles, the latter is used to distinguish the single individual as a unique person with his or her own individual way of relating to the social and cultural phenomena inherent in lifestyle. General patterns of lifestyle allow us to find unity within diversity, whereas individual lifestyles allow us to find diversity within unity.
The lifestyle studies conducted within the Media Panel Program may perhaps best be described in terms of a continuous oscillation between categorizations and particularizations. On the one hand, we have categorized empirically a multitude of leisure time activities or genres of film and music in terms of a limited number of aggregates, and on the other hand, we have shown how seven particular individuals can be described in terms of these categories, at the same time as they deviate considerably from them. One advantage of such an oscillation between different levels of analysis is that one can identify, and thereby take into consideration, the various limitations and problems related to lifestyle studies on both the aggregated and the individual, the micro and the macro, level of analysis.
NOTE
1. The major part of this chapter builds on what is presented in the doctoral dissertation Do the Right Thing. Lifestyle and Identity In Contemporary Youth Culture (1992), which I wrote with Thomas Johansson. All the interviews accounted for in the text were conducted jointly by Johansson and me, and much of the theoretical discussions are the product of our joint efforts.
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