Dreams of Cars on an Island Youth, Cars and Cultural Values in the Faroe Islands

Dreams of Cars on an Island Youth, cars and cultural values in the Faroe Islands

Dreymar um bilar á oyggjum Ungdómur, bilar og mentanarlig virði í Føroyum

Firouz Gaini Teacher College – Føroya Læraraskúli – University of the Faroe Islands Frælsið 20, FO-100 Torshavn Email: ﬁrouz@ﬂsk.fo

eina nýggja mynd av einum evni, ið hevur verið eyð- Abstract kent av sterkari samfelagsligari fordøming av hugburði This article, based on a research project on youth and og atferð ungdómsins. car cultures in the Faroe Islands, describes and analyses the meaning, value and symbol given to cars and Introduction driving among young people today. The article focuses on leisure, social interaction and cultural identity in There is a peculiar relationship between order to understand and deﬁne the position and role youth and cars. Young people themselves of the car among young people. The risk behaviour consider car driving as praxis tailored to and attitude of drivers is investigated with these youth cultures. The car symbolizes the questions in mind: How do young people interpret vivaciousness and hedonism in their life- their own risk behaviour? How do young people com- municate experiences and information concerning the styles. The private car is the vehicle to safety and danger of driving? The article aims to give a success in social endeavours among peers. fresh view on a ﬁeld that has been characterized by Without access to a car many young people strong prejudiced societal condemnation of young feel detached from popular social networks people´s attitudes and behaviour. in their local community. The car is the key to free, funny and sensual lifestyles. But free- Útrak dom involves danger. Car driving is hence Hesin tekstur, ið hevur støði í granskingarverkætlan um also a question of risk calculation and crucial ungdóm og bilmentan í Føroyum, lýsir og greinir mein- decision-making on the roads. Risk beha- ingar, virði og symbol, ið ung geva bilum og bilkoyring viour is part of the style of many young men, í dag. Teksturin hyggur serliga at frítíðini, sosiala sam- skiftinum og mentanarliga samleikanum við tí fyri eyga blamed for being devils on wheels in the at skilja og allýsa støðuna og leiklutin, ið bilurin hevur media. This article takes a closer look at the millum ung. Risiko-atferðin og hugburðurin hjá bil- so-called `car cultures’ of young people in førarum verða kannað við hesum spurningum í huga: the Faroe Islands. It takes the reader on a trip Hvussu tulka ung sjálv sína risiko-atferð? Hvussu sam- with these introductory statements as a skifta ung sínar royndir og sína vitan viðvíkjandi trygd og vanda í bilkoyring? Málið við tekstinum er at geva roadmap. The article discusses youth, cars

Fróðskaparrit 57. bók 2009: 59 -76 60 DREAMS OF CARS ON AN ISLAND and cultural values in the Faroe Islands today behaviour on the roads of the Faroe Islands. from an interpretive anthropological app- Today people are in general consciously roach. aware of modern road traffic dangers. The As an island community the Faroes are ‘car culture’ of young people is also changing; normally associated with boats and sea new values and symbols are being intro- routes (Joensen, 1982). For centuries water duced to the youth cultures (Gaini, 2009). was – in every meaning of the word – the Especially, young men, aged 18-30, are main component of life. So why write about considered hard to advice and educate young people’s dreams of cars on small dots regarding safe driving. of land in the vast Atlantic Ocean? Because the car is indispensable in contemporary Methods Faroese culture – for work, family-life, leisure, In June 2009, I published a report – commis- etc. Motor vehicles infiltrate every societal sioned by the Road Safety Council – on sphere, especially those involving young young people, traffic behaviour and road people. The car is the means and end of pro- safety in the Faroe Islands. This recent jects. Cars, says a French philosopher, are the anthropological research venture (2006- aesthetic cathedrals of the 20 th and 21 st 2008) provides this article’s prime data. The centuries (Heddelin, 1991). Symbolic car report is based on qualitative semi-structu- worshipping takes place around the red interviews and questionnaires involving globalized world; even small peripheral around 100 people in total during 2006-07. archipelagos give homage to the trans- Most informants are aged 16-30 and resi- national ‘car cult’. There are more than dents of Torshavn. The informants have 20.000 registered motor vehicles in the Faroe different social, cultural, religious and family Islands, the home of 49.000 inhabitants backgrounds, but all of them are students or (Akstovan, 2009). former students of upper secondary schools The Faroe Islands, a latemodern society of the Faroe Islands. One out of three infor- in the North-western corner of Europe, mants was undertaking higher education at witnessed relatively high numbers of serious departments of the University of the Faroe accidents on the roads through the 1980s Islands – including the Nursery School and and 1990s (Sigvardsen and Kragesteen, Teachers College – at the time of the inter- 2003). Fortunately, the negative statistical view. Even though most informants are stu- pattern has changed during the last years, dents in Torshavn, many have a background making the national Road Safety Council’s from distant towns and villages. (Ráðið fyri Ferðslutrygd ) preventive informa- The informants are not singled out tion campaign look successful. The purpose because they have first-hand car accident of the council’s promoted ‘zero-vision’ pro- experience; they represent a cross section of ject is a future where no one is killed or contemporary Faroese youths with different seriously wounded in car accidents (op cit). viewpoints and attitudes towards driving. This may be Utopia, but the visionary plan The informants present youth images of the changes the discourse on safe and unsafe curious rituals and ceremonies, customs and DREYMAR UM BILAR Á OYGGJUM 61 values that characterize car cultures of the Faroese society. Risk is a relational concept Faroe Islands. Another important origin of knit into specific social contexts. The this article’s data is readers’ letters and news understanding of risk, its value and articles printed in Faroese newspapers consequences, depends on the knowledge during the last decade. Most of this written and identity of the interpreter. Risk for material gives factual documentation of whom? Risk considered necessary? Risk tragic road accidents in the Faroe Islands. considered rewarding? Risk signalling total This article does not give a thorough analysis freedom? Risk and security, relevant subjects of the meaning and value of cars in the in post-9/11 political discourse, are always youth cultures and everyday lives, rather, it related to the notions of freedom and self- investigates some facets in a complex and determination (op cit). It has for generations ambiguous relation – the relation between been common sense to claim, that risk young people and motor vehicles. behaviour is the brand of the youth. The ‘live The Faroese youth research tradition is fast die young’ cliché romanticizes high risk young and quantitatively limited (Gaini, in modern youth lifestyles. 2008). No study of the meaning of motor As observed in the field, young people in vehicles in youth cultures has been conduc- the Faroe Islands discuss the local car ted before my above mentioned project cultures with direct or indirect references to 2006-08. It is therefore difficult, almost impos- risk behaviour. The cultural models that sible, to give a reliable historical overview of young people have internalized through car cultures of the Faroe Islands. The education and social interaction shape their unfortunate shortage of social data from the understanding and interpretation of risk Faroe Islands makes most new research enter- behaviour. High risk behaviour, considered prises pioneering. Texts are therefore more destructive and irresponsible, is usually pragmatically explanatory and discursive than rooted in cultural and social models hard to comparatively analytical and theoretically change. In debates and research on AIDS, it is definitive. The holistic approach given un- often pointed out how difficult it is to covers general trends in the Faroe Islands change some groups of young people anno 2009, albeit without the ambition of regarding their sexual behaviour and establishing a paradigmatic core reference attitudes. Oppositional subcultures might text for future research within youth studies. even take risks in order to contest mainstream society’s moral ‘panics’. In other eoretical framework words, the risk behaviour functions as a The text is theoretically anchored in the symbolic defensive weapon that has a work of Ulrich Beck, who concentrates on boomerang effect – you put your own the risk and risk society concepts (Denney, health and welfare at risk. 2005). The aim is not to examine Beck’s risk The text also attempts to clarify the society theory, but to use ‘risk’ as an difficult shift from tradition to (late) analytical tool and conceptual approach to modernity in the Faroe Islands through the a complex cultural field in contemporary windscreen of the car. The image in the 62 DREAMS OF CARS ON AN ISLAND windscreen changes all the time when All risk, according to anthropologist driving through the majestic landscape of Mary Douglas (1982), is socially constructed the islands; fast unexpected movements also and risk knowledge depends on belief characterize the Faroese culture of the era of systems and moral positions. Douglas argues globalization (Gaini, 2008). The car culture that individuals never strictly and exclusively of the 1960s or 1970s is not the same as the act as atomized rational cost-benefit car culture of the 1980s or 1990s. The car has calculators, avoiding any risk of private got a new meaning, status and function for interests, because human beings are not able young drivers and their passengers. Global to handle all the information concerning risk mainstream media has a deep impact on and safety in logical rational manners. Much everyday life of Faroe Islanders anno 2009; of what we say is planned is coincidence boys and girls navigate between local and (Mlodinow, 2009). Individuals often act as global, traditional and modern, in their unintentional fools whose motivation is personal identity construction endeavours. spontaneous. In other words, risk is, says Different car cultures clash, because youth Douglas (1982), a culturally relative pheno- groups propagate incompatible values – e.g. menon. The discourse on risk has changed in the interpretation of risk and safety on the through time and context. Today it is highly roads (Gaini, 2006). associated with something unwanted – Risk society is, according to the British insecurity – and threatening. In a risk society sociologist Anthony Giddens (1999: 3), a many people are permanently “scared” of life society “increasingly preoccupied with the and looking for “safe places”. Young people future (and also with safety), which gene- on the roads, taking risks, are under pressure rates the notion of risk”. Ulrich Beck, a because of modern society’s thirst for German sociologist, focuses mainly on the controlled security (Denney, 2005). insecurities that, he claims, modernization itself has introduced (Beck, 1992). Risks, Presentation and discussion according to Beck and other social scientists, Passport to freedom are distributed unevenly in the population Today it is difficult to live in the Faroes of a society. This implies a social stratification without a driver’s licence. Most teenagers, where relative security – lack of risk – is a considering it a crucial investment, get their limited sought after capital (op cit). The driver’s licence for cars before reaching the main determinant in risk calculation is age of 20. Some passionate car-lovers even knowledge: reliable knowledge about the calculate the process in detail in order to foreseeable consequences of action. Risk have the sought after licence in the pocket taking is not necessarily something negative. for their eighteenth birthday. These youths Risk is also an integral component of any don’t want to wait one single day extra, fresh creative venture in modern societies – before being able to test the driver’s freedom in culture, politics and economy. Young on the roads. The individual’s economic, people, I repeat, are champions of coura- social and psychological preparations start geous risk taking. many years before he is legally permitted to DREYMAR UM BILAR Á OYGGJUM 63 drive a car. Many boys from the lower classes limited range of rooms and apartments for work hard to save money for their first rent in the community, value cars as free private car, which is also, preferably, acces- ‘rooms’ replacing the house they don’t have sible the very day they get the licence (Gaini, (Gaini, 2008). The car functions in other 2009). The perfect birthday celebration for words as a safety valve for structural societal children reaching the age of majority problems, e.g. the housing shortage in a includes the key to ‘freedom’ incarnated in a traditional society turned (late) modern. metal car key. Another special condition making it easy to The driver’s licence gives access to cars seduce people into the international car cult that give access to lifestyles, networks and is the rainy and windy weather of the basaltic youth groups. The dream of cars is also a islands in the Atlantic Ocean. dream of popularity among peers, high social status in society and, not least, force Trip to adult life of attraction towards potential worshippers A drive can be an adventurous trip that and lovers. For those who don’t drive young people bring to their adult life. themselves but still want to be recognized in Psychologists have for years investigated the local car cultures, it is important to have behaviour and feelings of drivers when they friends and acquaintances with ‘fancy’ cars are on the road (Best, 2006; Mogensen, in order to compensate for personal short- 2002). The risk taking youth is relevant in comings. Indeed, many young people who these studies. Cars are also connected to are frequent passengers of cruising cars don’t women and sexuality. Men talk about their own a car or even a licence to drive. Many cars as if they were attractive women that young men driving dark streets at night have they dominate. When men discuss car races underage girls on the car’s backseats. Espe- that they have taken part in, it is often a cially, in villages and towns outside the capi- metaphorical story of sexual intercourse. tal area, young people spend many hours in The car is a masculine object that men use cars that have many functions – e.g. as in order to get in contact with women, but mobile leisure club, café, disco, bedroom, etc. the car is also a cultural capital leading to (op cit). high rank among peers. This is a simplified Cars represent mobility, a sweet move- image of reality as many young modern ment that makes the driver feel that he floats women reject cars as symbols of masculinity. above the landscape without any limitations. Cars often function as a link between Young people associate the car with a boys and girls. Many love stories start on a broader horizon, opening the eyes to new drive. For many years already Faroese youths ideas, styles and networks. For many young have had drives as a favourite leisure time people in the Faroe Islands, notably in small activity. Niels Frid, a Danish journalist, wrote non-urban communities, the car symbolizes already in the early 1980s: a free private space out of their parents’ con- “Okay, what we are doing now, it is trol. Young men and women who live in important in Faroese culture, among their parents’ houses, often because of the young people, and it is what we call ‘to 64 DREAMS OF CARS ON AN ISLAND

drive a car trip’. It is a way to get social Modern culture and media communication. You drive back and forth, The car is a ‘natural’ part of Faroese culture and you do it many many times, let’s say nowadays. Since the last decades of the 20 th almost every night. And you say hello to century motoring has influenced all aspects people you know. People who are ‘inte- of life in the modern world (Dennis and Urry, resting’, let’s say girls, walk down the 2009). Contemporary cultural interpreta- streets. Then they wave their hand to you, tions of gender differences are also directed and you stop the car, and then they come by the societal weight of motor vehicles. The into the car… ” (in Fock, 1984) driver’s licence is the passport needed to enter adult society. Car ownership is, espe- This special drive, ‘to drive a car trip’, is cially among men, the ultimate childhood something every Faroese youth is familiar dream that will bring other future dreams to with. The drive implies something quite fruition; visions of new (social, cultural and similar to when people go to a party, a night sexual) relations, new experiences and new club or somewhere else, where people gather wisdom (Ingmarsson, 2004). The speed, informally (Best, 2006). One goal is indeed to danger and fantasy associated to cars are meet people that you haven’t met before. part of the dreams of boys (Wollen and Kerr, The car can also represent an escapade 2002). Like a wild animal the car has to be from boredom in daily life. It is nicer to be tamed by its master. The ferocious nature together in the car than to be bored alone at and (horse) power of the car, making it home. The car is often the arena where provocative, is mastered by young proud car- stories are told, rumours are spread and owners. plans for the coming weekend are made. The Movies full of speed and action, with the car is actually the framework for a variety of path-breaking ‘Fast and Furious’ movies as social activities among young people. The the lads’ favourite, as well as new sophisti- chronic thirst for liberty that young people cated computer games, are instructing the try to quench has the car as main drinking youth in senseless driving missions. The lad’s cup. Behind the wheel boys and girls can car manifests a spectacular show on the decide where and when to go. Especially in road, displaying four prized qualities: speed, small ‘empty’ villages young people feel potency, elegance and wildness (Gaini, socially isolated without access to a car 2009). This macabre dance on wheels, (Gaini, 2009). They need, from time to time, involving life-threatening risks, is part of the to escape to find the parties that people go notorious car culture of some youth groups to, to have secret meetings with young in the Faroe Islands. Risk taking on the roads people from neighbouring villages at night. is, among many youths, a reflective intentio- Today, people, with the help of cars, expect nal action, expressing reckless attitudes, to find the open gateway to all modern cultural resistance and emotional thrill. The lifestyles, whether they live in the centre or hazardous atmosphere, with planned life- periphery of society. gambling, can also be linked to popular media’s glamorous representation of death DREYMAR UM BILAR Á OYGGJUM 65 and destruction on the roads (Wollen and of village youth seldom fitting to empirical Kerr, 2002). Since film star James Dean’s fatal observations. Let us say that most youths crash in 1955, the car accident has ironically and cars are positioned somewhere between been a symbol of fresh youthfulness. the extreme poles of capital and village. The Driving has its unavoidable victims – village youth, in the discourse, is always many of them inexperienced boys and girls – driving with open windows and loud music. that pay a high price for the ‘freedom’ that The driver doesn’t care if it rains or snows. young people in general associate to the No storm cancels the repetitive night rides motor vehicle. The behaviour a driver between villages. Also, village youth always displays on the roads normally reflects his fix their cars. Whenever they have time off, personality, values and perspectives. The risk young men disappear into oily garages and taking driver is often also considered socie- transform into amateur car mechanics with tally menacing in other contexts. Persons a handyman’s pragmatic intelligence (Gaini, suffering emotional imbalance, often rela- 2008) tively marginalized socially, are overrepre- The village youths – who actually exist sented among hazardous drivers (Mogensen, in the capital as well as in remote fishing 2002). People under strong pressure in their communities – are extravagant as handy- daily lives – at work, at home or among men, because the grand metamorphosis of friends – also belong to the ‘risk group’ not his poor vehicle never ends. Some details are taking earnest responsibility in traffic. always missing in the punctual make-it- Positively, on the other hand, driving can cooler project. The aesthetic chirurgic ope- unleash hidden uncontrollable feelings that ration that cars undergo in order to get otherwise would never come to light. higher value among youths is a complex subcultural process not to be analyzed “Put simply: while driving in our cars, we thoroughly in this text. The creative car have the freedom, power and anonymity owner’s aim is normally to improve his rank with which to express extreme and violent in the group, hence also to get easier access emotions we may suppress in the rest of to admiring women. The peculiar masculine our lives ” (Wollen and Kerr, 2002) identity of these drivers, often associated with provincial lifestyles, connects the boy’s Centre and periphery capacities symbolically to the sign of the car The car culture discourse of Faroese youth is (Mogensen, 2002). The sound, shape and characterized by the stereotyped dichotomy colours of the car signal sexual capacities. capital–village or centre–periphery that The car is, in this respect, a prolonged part defines styles and trends in driving. Village of the driver’s personal identity. youths, considered more traditional and Among the most devoted car lovers the provincial than Torshavn’s ‘city-dwellers’, can vehicle becomes a fetish that, like orna- easily be recognized by their cars. That is ments, follows the master in any mission at what my young informants say, even though any time (Vaaranen, 2004). The car, like the I regard it as a rather subjective construction horse of a cowboy, is the shade that never 66 DREAMS OF CARS ON AN ISLAND leaves the man. The car gives life content and nated era of the cowboys (Dennis and Urry, meaning and cannot easily be substituted by 2009). any other interest. This monomaniac charac- ter is rare but survives in enclaves of latemo- Lifestyle and values dern Faroese society. The Atlantic cowboy, Cars are used as leisure playthings. The proud of his macho style and working class youngest drivers, aged about 18-23, often (fishing) background, had his heyday in the have free access to their parents’ car in 1970s and 1980s. He was the weekend evenings and weekends. Faroese youths are, playboy and action-seeker with strong bonds compared to contemporaries in many to traditional family-based village communi- neighbouring countries, relatively indepen- ties (Gaini, 2006). The cowboy is today con- dent and unrestricted in their relation to tested by several new types of men with parents and other seniors in the family. This much more ambiguous and urban mascu- explains the large amount of young people line values. The Atlantic cowboy was very driving in the streets at night. Driver’s license close to the stereotyped village youth pole holders are privileged to amuse themselves in the previously mentioned capital–village with cars without noteworthy caution from continuum. veteran drivers. The car functions as a mobile The village youth stereotype, according bar and discothèque without a dance floor. to a 26-year-old female informant, is the boy The driver tries, in fierce competition with who comes to Torshavn in a car that has a driving comrades, to gather friends and lowered chassis, 4000W subwoofers, 17 attractive admirers into his car for a journey inches sport rims and preferably many lights through the mountainous landscape after on all sides. The driver wears slippers, a white sunset. cotton T-shirt and a brown or black leather The car is a sex symbol in modern me- jacket. But, says the informant, today the dia. Actually, it has been a symbol of seduc- capital is full of villagers, so the difference is tion from the very beginning (Best, 2006). not obvious anymore. Today cars identified The car has – in movies, music, arts etc. – with Atlantic cowboys – e.g. Opel Mantra signified the fulfilment of man’s erotic de- and Toyota Corolla in the 1980s – are con- sires. It is a social stage where comedies and sidered rather farcical. The new trend is to tragedies are played, but it is also a practical have expensive luxury cars – BMW always a tool that makes everyday life more flexible, hit among young boys showing muscles – mobile and adventurous. You never know that exhibit economic wealth more than where the car takes you. At night, when anything else (Gaini, 2009). The owners of others are sleeping or in the nightclub’s neon these vehicles are seldom amateur mecha- lights, who is driving the car? Are the drivers nics with dirty garages. They are not very boring outsiders without a social network? young and they wear black shoes fitting to Or are they exactly the opposite? These sterile offices in Torshavn. Women are also questions have no simple answers. Young active car drivers with interest in motors and people driving alone without any fixed wheels, a shift from the strongly male domi- destination are trying to avoid boring family DREYMAR UM BILAR Á OYGGJUM 67 life on tiring evenings. While driving around, Memphis rides have no doubt directed they listen to music, chat on the telephone, many acclaimed rock hits. write text messages and keep an eye on the movements in the environment. They are in “Throughout his life, his [Elvis’] favourite fact quite busy. nontoxic form of recreation was racing It is a delicate job to try to illustrate the through the streets of Memphis with his relationship between personality, cultural buddies in the wee hours of the morning, identity and lifestyle on the one hand, and and unlike most celebrities, he scoffed at traffic behaviour on the other. The sociologi- the idea of chauffeurs. Driving was simply cal theory on drivers in danger is not easily too important ” (Wollen and Kerr, 2002) uncovered. The wild child may drive in an exemplary manner while the quiet well- Many grown-ups are nostalgically longing mannered boy may turn into a crazy speed back to youthful years with joyful night rides hog when driving. What is well documented without any terminus. The car evokes the scientifically is that strong emotions, anger, memory of past pleasures together with trauma and depression can influence driving friends and curious strangers. The filmmaker abilities negatively (Mogensen, 2002). Fatal George Lucas says about the American misjudgements in traffic may start with a Graffiti (1973). rage from the early morning. The driver may act like a person under the influence of alco- “That was my life. I spent four years hol even if he has not consumed any alcohol driving around the main street of Modesto, or drug. Young men can be relatively unsafe chasing girls. It was the mating ritual of my drivers because of lack of experience, but times, before it disappeared and every- they can also be very trustworthy because body got into psychedelia and drugs ” (in their senses function well and they think and Wollen and Kerr, 2002) respond impressively fast. Modern man is homeless, or rather, he has a homeless mind, says Berger (Berger et al. On the endless road 1974). The car is a good instrument in the Motoring has greatly influenced contempo- search in vain for the imagined home, but it rary youth cultures around the globe. The is also somehow a home in itself. The car, in car symbolizes a sweet freedom to move a modern perspective, furnishes a vacuum in away from geographical, social and kinship existence. The car hence signifies a shelter in limitations in everyday life. The car realizes a floating incomprehensible world. The Beat some of the dreams of boys and girls, feeling generation novelist Jack Kerouac’s On the locked up and under parental surveillance in Road (1957), describing his impulsive trip urban and village communities (Wollen and through bleak USA together with friends, has Kerr, 2002). A resolute driver, never getting influenced generations of American youths. tired of circular car rides with his pals, was In the novel the car is the poor man’s the rock star Elvis Presley. His juvenile property, not the affluent American’s luxury. 68 DREAMS OF CARS ON AN ISLAND

Also, most road movies involve marginalized vanish when a local boat disappeared in characters without bright future prospects. stormy waters. The Faroe Islands have been a The Faroese road movie Bye Bye Blue Bird natural risk society from the beginning. (1999) is interesting, as it represents two girls Young people chat about the accidents, on the edge from manifold angles: between about the victims and about infamous risky childhood and adulthood, between local drivers that are still riding. They tell stories, and global community, between tradition give advice and warnings, as well as boast of and (late) modernity. The sky-blue Ford personal death-defying episodes on the Taunus, transporting the girls through the roads. Some details are subject to exag- islands, couples these contrasting dimen- geration in dramatic chronicles that often sions. portray the car crash as the result of heroic behaviour. A 15-year-old female informant “My idea of a piece of sculpture is a road. told me a shocking story: That is, a road doesn’t reveal itself at any particular point or from any particular “Once we drove in a car through the point. Roads appear and disappear. We tunnel to Leirvík [village]. We were 5 either have to travel on them or beside persons in the car; two boys and three them. But we don’t have a single point of girls. We drove at about 190 km/h until we view for a road at all, except a moving one, came to the curve in the tunnel; then the moving along it ” (Carl Andre in Moran, driver said with only one finger on the 2009) wheel: – if I now lose control, then it is just splash and tomorrow the death notices Accidents and tragedies will be read on the radio ” Most young people in the Faroe Islands have had direct or indirect experiences of severe Many of the tragic accidents that have killed traffic accidents. Girls and boys, if not boys and girls through the years happened themselves victims, have friends or relatives in the early hours of the day when young that have been involved in accidents on the people are on their way back home from roads. The Faroe Islands, a transparent small- parties and night clubs. Drivers are often very scale society with traditional kinship tired, affected by mixed feelings and distrac- relations, are jokingly regarded as ‘one big ted by their chatty friends on the backseat. family’. Anyway, this is more than just a The normally easy drive to the home village comic statement. When the mortal accident turns out to be a painful challenge with occurs, the worst horror for the bereaved, many pitfalls. Driving with breakneck speed the whole village or town is in mourning when intoxicated is a suicidal act that has (Gaini, 2009). The loss of a son or a daughter resulted in carnage on mountain roads is affecting the whole society, because the (Gaini, 2009). The deadly collisions shake Faroe Islands are sensitive and unarmed in society’s fabric and traumatize friends and relation to many kinds of disasters. In past relatives. Some of the close friends of the centuries whole village communities could deceased continue, unaffected, their risk DREYMAR UM BILAR Á OYGGJUM 69 behaviour with high speed and races on usually young men from village working- deserted road stretches. Nothing, it seems, class homes with a conservative interpre- can stop their game of death. Some boys tation of masculine values. Some of them are even, implicitly, consider their dead comra- the sons of car loving Atlantic cowboys from des as car cult martyrs. the 1980s and 1990s. Usually the race, taking place far from residential areas at night, has Street racing two participating cars manned with the Young people talk a lot about street races, drivers only. Other persons control the race’s but few have participated in them. Faroese start and finishing lines as well as the poten- street races are secret informal ventures tial presence of police or other unwelcomed without any clear organization. The street- vehicles. racing youth doesn’t represent an elaborate Reputed car-racing road stretches are, youth culture even if a limited group of my informants tell me, most often long, wide young men form the hard core of the street- and straight. But it is important to regularly racing milieu. These men have similar values change location in order to avoid the atten- as street-racing youths from other North tion of the police. Besides, it would be boring European countries. Finnish youth subcul- routine, say some experienced informants, tures have strong street-racing traditions, to use the same piece of road again and says the sociologist Heli Vaaranen (2004). again. The racing youth’s high spot are weekend nights when many races take place. “The street-racing youths used their cultu- Frequently, the races start accidentally, after ral performance to create nighttime the boys, gathered around their cars, have counter-experiences for their daytime been engaged in boasting about power, experiences of lost opportunities. This fearlessness and women. Suddenly the counter-experience became ‘a room of his rivalling pals have to rush to an appointed own’, it defined a street racer’s masculine road for the risky street battle to begin. identity, and it functioned as a coping stra- Another situation that can lead to impulsive tegy to fight exclusion ” street races is when a group of young people, driving in a couple of cars, is heading for a In Finland, Vaaranen unveils, the street- village or town in order to participate in racing youths are in general marginalized social activities. All of a sudden two or three working-class boys and girls that don’t have drivers, wanting to pilot the convoy, speed many success stories from everyday life. The up and start a ‘fast and furious’ game. night-time show puts the otherwise Drivers that participate in spontaneous marginalized man in the centre, makes him races often show egocentric behaviour, igno- the hero with high status among peers. ring the terror their frightened backseat Faroese street-racing youths are not very ‘hostages’ are subjected to. To give the pas- different from other young drivers, but they sive passengers in risk taking drivers’ cars the are indeed risk takers that don’t take road courage to say “stop!“ is one of the main safety seriously. The street-racing youths are challenges in traffic accident prevention 70 DREAMS OF CARS ON AN ISLAND work among young people (Gaini, 2009). To and fishermen” do street-racing. Anyway, it break the silence and verbally confront the is not simply a question of taking risks and mindless driver when feeling danger is very being immature as a driver, because many hard for a teenager that wants to be cool and street-racing youths are self-educated motor popular among friends. The latent social specialists with an obsessive car fascination. pressure inside the car, affecting the pas- Some of them are also, even if considered sengers as well as the directing driver, can crazy devils on wheels, technically very good result in fatally wrong decisions taken in drivers with vigilant senses. Let’s say they just silence (Mogensen, 2002). The driver doesn’t happen to violate traffic legislation. But want to look nervous and anxious when his several fatal crashes, involving these young friends have their eye on him. The car culture drivers, attest that they are not invulnerable, of young men at risk has its own values and something they unfortunately often imagine rituals that are incongruent with mainstream themselves to be. Maybe you are a brilliant middle-class values. driver now, a Faroese driving school teacher tells his young naïve students, but remember Identity and risk behaviour that the other drivers are reckless fools on During the last years motorbikes in large the roads. numbers have been imported to the Faroe Security didn’t come to the mind of Islands, giving street-races a new meaning. Faroese drivers before a lot of young blood The new interest in heavy motorbikes had been spilled on the roads (Sigvardsen reflects new youth cultural trends that invol- and Kragesteen, 2003). The first generations ve even more hazardous driving than during of fishermen converted to car drivers were the Atlantic cowboys’ heyday era. The awarded the license before they knew the motorbike races in the underwater tunnel to difference between the accelerator and the town of Klaksvik, mentioned by several break. Everyone, old or young, wanted to be informants, are especially hair-raising. part of the drivers’ happy fraternity. The local newspapers had weekly stories about “The North Islands tunnel: they keep people driving into rivers and canyons, even watch on both ends of the tunnel. Then into the deep sea from harbours as well as they enter to check if any car is in the unlikely crashes on narrow village paths. Very tunnel. If no one is there two cars start a few people used the seatbelt, which was race from one end to the other. They simply considered an aesthetic decoration. record the race on mobile phone video Even small children travelled without any cameras and think it is very funny ” security belt. The shift from small oar boats to ultra-modern motor vehicles is a bloody The last years the street-racing youth has lost tale with a very long ripening period. The respect and value among most other youth security question, risk minimization, was groups that consider their lifestyle irrational, completely missing when most needed. harmful and primitive (Gaini 2006). A boy Youth car cultures can be described as says that today only “villagers, the ‘cool’ boys reflections of young people’s need to create DREYMAR UM BILAR Á OYGGJUM 71 new meanings and styles. Young people are Latemodern society, according to Mogensen determined to take their own decisions who writes about Danish male drivers, puts regarding direction, rapidity and destination new stifling demands on young men with in life’s manifold challenges (Best 2006). strong masculine identities. The new Young people desire to form new cultural ‘freedom’ propagated by preachers of constructions by combining well-known latemodernity feels like a heavy burden on things in new ways. The car is regarded as a these. The car comes to their rescue in this key to success in this latemodern society dilemma. mission ( Dennis and Urry, 2009). The problem arises when someone tries to legitimize “The big freedom that apparently gives the his capacities, cultural status and social capi- individual the chance to be exactly the one tal through car driving. Such persons nor- he wants to is frightening. It is favourably mally hold a relatively marginalized position substituted in situations with much in society. Young speed hogs often act in a smaller pressure and simpler demands. delirium of untamed emotions. These The car is in one way the youth’s last free drivers feel joy and frenzied enthusiasm resort. Here there are uncomplicated rules when riding the roads. Nothing can stop of game and social relations that you them. Also the risky high speed drive can be yourself choose to relate to. In cars youths a provocative counter-cultural message to can, for a while, escape from and suspend the adult generations (Best, 2006). society’s and time’s forced on freedom; they can be free…from freedom ” Bad boys and marginalization Social marginalization is closely linked to Another interesting observation that I made behaviour in traffic. It is not coincidental during my fieldwork among young drivers is that some young people end in traffic the way life and death are portrayed by the incidents, again and again, whiles other boys and girls. Many drivers that almost got young drivers take no risks and are very killed in traffic accidents are Christians with anonymous on the roads. Kevin Mogensen a strong belief in God as their saviour. The (2002), a Danish researcher, says: survival is therefore often described as a miracle with extraordinary coincidences. Life “Youths with risk-identity, risk-youths and after the ‘doomsday’ crash is often conside- risk-drivers are typically youths that don’t red a message from God that gives the driver have any other place where they can a second change to ‘improve’ lifestyle and explore their identity without the feeling of moral values. In a very fatalistic fashion some being disliked and marginalized. Risk- drivers describe tragic events as a prophetic youths can have problems to adapt to drama orchestrated by divine powers. In institutional contexts – family, school, other cases the shocking crash is illustrated education and working-places – that as the awakening hour when a lost boy demand the youth to act in reflexive and found God. The crash symbolizes the shift individualistic styles ” from a miserable existence to a life as passio- 72 DREAMS OF CARS ON AN ISLAND nate believer. The car is hence the agent that maybe like going to the amusement park leads to revelation. Tivoli. It is to experience a rush. The Many young road victims, seriously disa- difference is that in Tivoli you are passive. bled and traumatized, are surprisingly posi- There you just sit in the roller coaster and tive when discussing their past as notorious cannot do anything. When you drive fast, risky drivers. Some are even proud of their you steer it yourself. You trust yourself, the wild life on the edge before the final collision adrenalin is pumping, and it is exciting’, he smashed their fragile bodies. Some young explains. […] That one of them could die fearless men that lost close friends in acci- was not on their mind, even if people had dents even proclaim that nothing will warned them” (the journal LÍT, 2000) change these boys’ attitudes and behaviour on the roads (Gaini, 2009). Like a deep Two years later yet another dreadful accident instinct, they say, the driver will do the same – this time on Eysturoy – extinguished three again and again as long as he is able to steer young lives. Early in the morning a brand- this diabolic machine. The rush felt when new Ford Mondeo loaded with 5 passengers speeding up the car is thrilling, making aged 17-22 was found completely ruined rapidity an addiction difficult to cut. The beside the road. Such accidents shake the power of the car sets the maximum line that whole Faroese society. The unspeakable the boy tries to reach in suicidal driving trauma echoed throughout the local orgies. If the car was not the global car cult’s community that the victims belonged to holy cow many people would strongly claim was hard to overcome for many years. The that not everyone is an acceptable driver; societal vacuum that fatal car accidents they would say that not everyone has the create influences many people in many ways. right to drive a car (op cit). A man in wheel-chair tells his sad story as an unfortunate driver in a newspaper article. Death and survival on the roads In 1999 a deadly car accident happened on “19 th December 1988. I will never forget the island of Suðuroy. Only one out of four that day. I wish it was just a normal day boys in the car survived the crash. The that was soon forgotten – but it is definite- surviving boy tells the story of car driving ly not easy when you are left with the with friends in an article: consequences of this day. It was the day when my life turned 180 degrees. That day “Tey used to drive madly, Fróði admits. Tey I did the most stupid thing I ever done, and gave everything that the car could I will never forgive myself for this, but that manage. Sometimes, when no one was does not help me in any way […] I don’t around, the speed was around 200 km/h. remember the accident itself, because I He stopped with this after the accident was unconscious without any memory for [1999], and now he is more careful when several days […] My message to young driving. ‘We did not, as you often hear, people is: think twice before entering the drive to boast. It was not like that. It is car when intoxicated, don’t do it, take a DREYMAR UM BILAR Á OYGGJUM 73

taxi. Don’t let a small drive take your lives. of hospital today […] He tells that he had I don’t want others to end up like me just started to attend a driving school when because of stupidity. I could have escaped the accident happened. In four months JS’s all this if I had not searched for the car key finger will be normal again, and he will that Sunday night before Christmas in continue his lessons to obtain a driver’s 1988. Finally I want to say that I am happy license” (Dam, 2007) to live when I think about how close I was to losing my life.” This teenager, who could easily have lost his life in a crash, looks very much forward to The dream of cars underlying most young going back to the driving school to get people’s struggle to get the driver’s license is introductory skills in the art of driving. The a dream of freedom, amusement and dream of cars has not been substituted by stimulation; it is also a dream of reaching other future dreams. The relationship betwe- new cultural and social horizons. The en youth and cars is elastic; it can move from tragedies on the roads, regularly in the intimate to relatively distant, but it is seldom media’s searchlight, don’t break the dreams clearly cut off. Like a boomerang the car, for of all young people. Even victims of accidents most Faroese boys and girls, comes back caused by reckless drivers preserve the when you try to get rid of it (Gaini, 2009). illusion of cars as harmless irreplaceable But young heretics contesting contemporary instruments of life in latemodern society. society’s car culture hegemony are gaining ground – reflected in the Atlantic cowboys’ “Almost four weeks have gone since 18- fading power among young men – at a time year-old John Sigurd Danielsen [JS] from when cultural currents are amalgamated and Strendur was injured in an accident where reconstructed in the postmodern maelstrom the driver lost control of the car, which of youth identities. looped. JS suffered severe head injuries, without consciousness for two days, was Analysis and conclusions urgently sent to Denmark […] We had The art of driving involves different levels of been bowling in Leirvík, two friends and risk taking by individuals with different risk me. That is the last thing I remember behaviour patterns. The driver’s observable before the crash. The next thing I driving style unveils many elements of risk, remember is when two days later, I wake but other element are not recognized before up in Denmark, says JS. He can therefore the ‘unexpected’ accident is a fact… The risk not tell us how he experienced the accident factor is hence never under full control itself […] He was sent to Denmark and through advanced risk management (Mar- was lying in a respirator for two days. shall and Picou, 2008). It takes many years to After 17 days in Denmark, he could be become a good and safe driver. Experienced sent home to the Faroe Islands last Friday. drivers can forecast many dangerous He has been in hospital in Torshavn since situations in traffic in order to avoid the that, but according to plans he will get out potential accident, but they are not prophets 74 DREAMS OF CARS ON AN ISLAND without weaknesses. The problem is that They therefore tend (at least in the middle human beings will always run into hazardous class) to challenge and provoke the older scenarios because of the impact of senti- generation – the generation that possesses ments, irrational meditation and dreamlike social, political, pedagogical and economic imagination on our interaction and beha- power…” viour. On a cultural level it is interesting to The meaning of cars in youth car cultures is present the generational divide regarding the usually very far from the formal authorities’ meaning and value of risk behaviour. Young negative images of young drivers – especially people have through centuries been blamed young working-class men (Best, 2006). The for immoral risky lifestyles of all kinds (Best, car is much more than a speedy vehicle that 2006). They are condemned as irresponsible, young individuals abuse in self-centred egocentric hedonists with little respect of leisure activities. The so-called TWOC youth the rules and order of society. Periods of in USA illustrates the complex ever-changing moral panics – with fear and anger towards youth–cars–culture relation. youth generations accused of anarchistic attitudes and destructive social behaviour – “In her book Goliath, Campbell (1993) are inherent components of modern society. discusses the TWOCers whose behaviour Cohen says, “A condition, episode, person or caused such media fury for a few years in group of persons emerges to become the 1980s/1990s. The TWOCing was defined as a threat to societal values and ‘taking cars without the owner’s consent’. interests” (in Boethius, 1995: 41). The panic Campbell writes of one group of young sometimes develops into hysterical emo- men on a particular estate who used such tional campaigns against non-conformist cars to demonstrate their driving skills to minorities in society. their admiring peers. From 10 at night they Some young men and women, labelled transformed what was otherwise thought lost ‘outsiders’ by mainstream middle-class of as the square near the shopping centre youths, feel discriminated and stigmatized in into an arena of dramatic performance. their everyday lives (Vaaranen, 2004). This Outrageous speeds, handbrake turns, youth group doesn’t get cultural recognition sudden stops, and dramatic exits. After 10 by the society and sticks to its own subcul- at night this space belonged to them; tural values and styles – e.g. the street-racing everyone else kept well clear. […] After 10 youth and other risk-taking drivers. The this was young men’s territory” (Massey, drivers taking severe risks on the roads are 1998: 128) often in a multifarious mission of resistance towards the power holders of society. The The car is part of a territorial struggle where researcher Boethius (1995: 49) says: young people normally are the weak part that has to accept unattractive border areas “Children and youth often feel (as do wo- far from the prestigious centres of society. men) dependent, suppressed and bound. The strategic segregation process separating DREYMAR UM BILAR Á OYGGJUM 75 non-conformist youths from the rest is often masculine sphere of society. The Atlantic linked to political risk discourses. The risky cowboys of the 1970s and 1980s lived in a youth is, implicitly, not supposed to have society characterized by deep gender much contact with the risk-free groups in divisions regarding young people’s leisure, society because of a ‘risk fencing’ policy. The lifestyle and identities. There has been a shift ideational suppression of youth with risk in society since the 1990s. Today young behaviour is today more elaborate than ever women with a deep interest in motor before. Risk was a natural part of everyday vehicles and engines feel free to act like the life on the rocky islands when natural forces lads on the roads. in the form of wind, rain, fog and stormy Nobody can become totally risk-free. waters had to be faced from the age of 14. The so-called ‘risk society’ is characterized by The concept of risk itself was ambiguous and the ‘democratization’ of risk, which implies beyond human judgement. the spreading of unwanted risk to all social The free untamed mind, characterizing and cultural layers of society, even if the many youngsters, was praized, not wealthy classes indeed invest huge amounts suppressed, in traditional society. There was of money in order to improve security and no strict separation between work and reduce risk in their own neighbourhoods leisure, duties and privileges. Even the (Beck, 1992; 1998; 2008). Young people – analytic distinction between youth and especially young men – are often considered adults was uncommon in premodern the most dangerous participants in car society. Young and old worked closely traffic in modern societies. It might be a together and were hence in friendly social statistically correct statement, but the ironic interaction that secured the smooth side effect of the public warning against reproduction of cultural values from young male drivers is the desperation and generation to generation. The reckless young aggressiveness of the outsiders that take risks driver that spreads horror and panic in his on the roads. The rough prejudices against home community is seldom accompanied young drivers, labelling a whole generation by elder passengers. The boy is probably not as senseless road users, are largely unfair and even talking to his elders about his high ineffective. The car cultures reflect youth speed car driving. cultures that reflect general currents in con- This text has put young men in focus, temporary culture. It is in other words a but young women take part in all the car larger construction involving adults as well cultures in the Faroe Islands. There might be as young people. less focus on women as drivers in the public discourse and media in general, but the fact is that women are very active participants in most cruising and racing missions. They are still a minority among the hard core drivers with high risk behaviour, but they are no longer excluded from the traditional 76 DREAMS OF CARS ON AN ISLAND

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