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Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Managing dramaturgical dilemmas
T2 - youth drinking and multiple identities
AU - Cocker, Hayley Louise
AU - Piacentini, Maria Grazia
AU - Banister, Emma Neva
N1 - This article is (c)2018 Emerald Group Publishing and permission has been granted for this version to appear here (URL of the record on the Pure Portal). Emerald does not grant permission for this article to be further copied/distributed or hosted elsewhere without the express permission from Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
PY - 2018/5/14
Y1 - 2018/5/14
N2 - PurposeThis paper aims to understand how young people manage the dramaturgical dilemmas related to drinking alcohol and performing multiple identities.Design/methodology/approachDrawing on qualitative data collected with 16-18-year olds, the authors adopt Goffman’s dramaturgical perspective to examine youth alcohol consumption in relation to multiple identities.FindingsYoung people continuously and skilfully juggle multiple identities across multiple contexts, where identities overflow and audiences and interactions overlap. Techniques of audience segregation, mystification and misrepresentation and justification are used to perform and manage multiple identities in a risky health behaviour context.Research limitations/implicationsThe approach may facilitate some over- and under-claiming. Future studies could observe young people’s performances of self across multiple contexts, paying particular attention to how alcohol features in these performances.Practical implicationsSocial marketing campaigns should demonstrate an understanding of how alcohol relates to the contexts of youth lives beyond the “night out” and engage more directly with young peoples’ navigation between different identities, contexts and audiences. Campaigns could tap into the secretive nature of youth alcohol consumption and discourage youth from prioritising audience segregation and mystification above their own safety.Originality/valueExtant work has argued that consumers find multiplicity unmanageable or manage multiple identities through internal dialogue. Instead, this paper demonstrates how young people manage multiple identities through interaction and performance. This study challenges the neat compartmentalisation of identities identified in prior literature and Goffman’s clear-cut division of performances into front and back stage.
AB - PurposeThis paper aims to understand how young people manage the dramaturgical dilemmas related to drinking alcohol and performing multiple identities.Design/methodology/approachDrawing on qualitative data collected with 16-18-year olds, the authors adopt Goffman’s dramaturgical perspective to examine youth alcohol consumption in relation to multiple identities.FindingsYoung people continuously and skilfully juggle multiple identities across multiple contexts, where identities overflow and audiences and interactions overlap. Techniques of audience segregation, mystification and misrepresentation and justification are used to perform and manage multiple identities in a risky health behaviour context.Research limitations/implicationsThe approach may facilitate some over- and under-claiming. Future studies could observe young people’s performances of self across multiple contexts, paying particular attention to how alcohol features in these performances.Practical implicationsSocial marketing campaigns should demonstrate an understanding of how alcohol relates to the contexts of youth lives beyond the “night out” and engage more directly with young peoples’ navigation between different identities, contexts and audiences. Campaigns could tap into the secretive nature of youth alcohol consumption and discourage youth from prioritising audience segregation and mystification above their own safety.Originality/valueExtant work has argued that consumers find multiplicity unmanageable or manage multiple identities through internal dialogue. Instead, this paper demonstrates how young people manage multiple identities through interaction and performance. This study challenges the neat compartmentalisation of identities identified in prior literature and Goffman’s clear-cut division of performances into front and back stage.
KW - Alcohol
KW - Interviews
KW - Youth
KW - Goffman
KW - Visual methods
KW - Multiple identities
U2 - 10.1108/EJM-01-2017-0045
DO - 10.1108/EJM-01-2017-0045
M3 - Journal article
VL - 52
SP - 1305
EP - 1328
JO - European Journal of Marketing
JF - European Journal of Marketing
SN - 0309-0566
IS - 5-6
ER -