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www.ssoar.info Risk, Transgression and Substance Use: An Ethnography of Young British Tourists in Ibiza Briggs, Daniel; Turner, Tim Veröffentlichungsversion / Published Version Zeitschriftenartikel / journal article Empfohlene Zitierung / Suggested Citation: Briggs, D., & Turner, T. (2011). Risk, Transgression and Substance Use: An Ethnography of Young British Tourists in Ibiza. Studies of Transition States and Societies, 3(2), 14-25. https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:0168-ssoar-363082 Nutzungsbedingungen: Terms of use: Dieser Text wird unter einer Deposit-Lizenz (Keine This document is made available under Deposit Licence (No Weiterverbreitung - keine Bearbeitung) zur Verfügung gestellt. Redistribution - no modifications). We grant a non-exclusive, non- Gewährt wird ein nicht exklusives, nicht übertragbares, transferable, individual and limited right to using this document. persönliches und beschränktes Recht auf Nutzung dieses This document is solely intended for your personal, non- Dokuments. Dieses Dokument ist ausschließlich für commercial use. All of the copies of this documents must retain den persönlichen, nicht-kommerziellen Gebrauch bestimmt. all copyright information and other information regarding legal Auf sämtlichen Kopien dieses Dokuments müssen alle protection. You are not allowed to alter this document in any Urheberrechtshinweise und sonstigen Hinweise auf gesetzlichen way, to copy it for public or commercial purposes, to exhibit the Schutz beibehalten werden. Sie dürfen dieses Dokument document in public, to perform, distribute or otherwise use the nicht in irgendeiner Weise abändern, noch dürfen Sie document in public. dieses Dokument für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke By using this particular document, you accept the above-stated vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, aufführen, vertreiben oder conditions of use. anderweitig nutzen. Mit der Verwendung dieses Dokuments erkennen Sie die Nutzungsbedingungen an. 14 STSS Vol 3 / Issue 2 Studies of Transition States and Societies Risk, Transgression and Substance Use: An Ethnography of Young British Tourists in Ibiza Daniel Briggs* & Tim Turner Abstract British youth have a notorious reputation for binge drinking, drug use, sex and risk behaviours within most major European holiday resorts. Consequently, there is much concern about their social activities abroad - especially in the Spanish Balearics. While research has documented these behaviours among British youth on these islands, it has tended to rely on survey data and off ered little understanding of why these behaviours might take place. This is the principle aim of our paper. Our research aims were to examine the drinking attitudes among British youth abroad and investigate the reasons that underpin these attitudes. Additional research interests were drug use, sex and risk behaviours. The paper is based on fi ndings from ethnographic research with British youth in San Antonio, Ibiza. We spent one week with British youth and undertook participant observation and 17 focus groups (equating to 97 young people aged 17 to 31). The data suggests that British youth engage in these behaviours because they are exciting; to escape the constraints of work and family in the UK; and because these behaviours are integral to the construction of their life biographies and identities. The data also indicates that these behaviours are aggressively endorsed by various aspects of the social context of Ibiza. Keywords: risk, transgression, substances, youth on holiday, ethnography. Introduction I try and guess who’s on the Ibiza fl ight while I’m sitting at Birmingham airport. There’s a group of three girls sitting opposite me in the departure lounge. They’re all in their early 20s and clearly ready to party. The one on the left dips into her hand luggage and pulls out three spotty plastic cups and an unopened bottle of Malibu. They’re all laughing and the one in the middle gets the camera out as a big gulp is taken directly from the full bottle. The one on the right stretches out a bangled arm and takes her spotty cup of Malibu. She’s already dressed for the sun with long, tanned legs exposed by high-cut denim shorts. She takes a swig, looks at me and winces; ‘Fuck! That’s a strong one!’ I smile back and ask if they’re all Ibiza-bound. All three laugh and give me the nod. (Field notes Tim Turner ‘Birmingham airport’ 25.7.10) Later that day, Tim (Author and Interviewer) arrives at the hotel in San Antonio in Ibiza and wanders over to a local bar: I sit on a tall stool at the outside bar of the Irish pub. Cindy is fi xing the drinks alone until midnight. She’s a friendly 25 year-old from Leeds, with long hair dyed black and blonde. This is her third summer working in Ibiza (as bar staff , promo girl and as a rep for Thompson). She’s previously worked in Majorca and Cyprus but says Ibiza is the craziest of the lot. We chat about the local area and she tells me that the real ‘madness’ is only a fi fteen-minute walk away [in San Antonio]. She doesn’t like the scene there at all: * E-mail address of the corresponding author: [email protected] Risk, Transgression and Substance Use: An Ethnography of Young British Tourists in Ibiza 15 ‘I’m so embarrassed to be British sometimes…the lads are worse than the girls, they just drink as much as they can then end up fi ghting, it’s like they’re in a competition with each other’. We talk about the police and she says they’re much stricter than back in the UK. Tourists are ‘roughed up’ for drunkenness. She says drugs are ‘incredibly easy’ to get and the police turn a blind eye. I take the barfl y role for a good three hours, chatting to Cindy and sometimes the promo duo James and Kerry (both self-confessed pill-heads). A steady stream of good-humoured single sex groups rolls by, usually in fours and fi ves. A group of three young girls lurch up to the bar for cocktails and a shot. They’re all about 18. The one immediately next to me is white blonde and has clearly had a few drinks already. She turns to me, asks if I’m on holiday, and laughs when I tell her what I’m doing. She fi lls in a questionnaire as her friends impatiently hurry her along: ‘C’mon! We’re wasting time!’ Most punters go for €3 cocktails. Sex on the beach seems to be the drink of choice (easy to remember? Risqué double entendre?). Certainly no one bothers looking at the cocktail menu. The off er of a free shot of schnapps isn’t refused in the three hours that I’m camped at the bar. Cindy, like all Ibiza bar crew, free-pours her drinks the European way; two bottles are held upside down in the glass simultaneously, for what seems like an eternity. These are big measures. She’s armed with a string of shots around her neck, like some kind of bandit from a spaghetti western. Although a free shot only follows your fi rst drink, Cindy sneakily hits me with a few extra freebies after each beer. It’s midnight and the bar is starting to fi ll up. The free shots have hit me and I leave to get my head straight for tomorrow. (Field notes Tim Turner ‘The bar’ 25.7.10) This was Tim’s experience after only a few hours of arriving in Ibiza. Indeed, Ibiza is a popular holiday destination choice for British youth (Govern de les Illes de Balears 2007). It is specifi cally marketed (Sellars 1998) because of its international reputation for nightlife (Bellis. Hughes, Bennett & Thomson 2003, IREFREA 2007), ‘wild’ party scene and easy access to illegal substances (Bellis et al. 2003, Hughes, Bellis & Chaudry 2004, Josiam, Hobson, Dietrich & Smeaton 1998, Segev, Paz & Potasman 2005, Smeaton, Josiam & Dietrich. 1998). Historically, the economy of Ibiza relies heavily on the commercial promotion of clubs and DJs (Garratt 1998), as well as the drug market (Armstrong 2004). For British youth, Ibiza is, therefore, indelibly associated with dance music, alcohol, drug use and sex (Bellis et al. 2003, Calafat, Stocco, Mendes, Simon, van de Wijngaart, Sureda, Palmer, Maalste & Zavatti. 1998, Engineer, Phillips, Thompson & Nicholls 2003, Hughes et al. 2004, Hughes, Bellis, Whelan, Calafat, Juan & Blay 2009). However, previous UK research on youth behaviours in Ibiza has tended to rely on surveys (Bellis, Hale, Bennett, Chaudry & Kilfoyle. 2000, Bellis et al. 2003, Department of Health 2005, Hughes et al. 2004, Hughes et al. 2009). Such epidemiological studies tend to portray youth behaviours abroad as dangerous and the young people who engage in them as vulnerable. However, cultural studies researchers argue that these young people are ‘active negotiators of the relationship between structure and agency’ (Ettore & Miles 2002: 173). To date, no ethnographic analysis explores reasons why British youth might engage in these behaviours while on holiday abroad. This issue is the primary aim of the article. While research shows that British youth do this to escape the constraints of work and family, which moderate everyday behaviours (Bellis, Hughes & Lowey 2002, Carter 1997, Carter, Horn, Hart, Dunbar, Scoular, & MacIntyre 1997, Ryan & Kinder 1996), others suggest the thrill of transgression and the seductions of risk are relevant reasons (Hayward 2002). We fi nd in this research that these issues are important to consider but also suggest that British youth are intent on constructing meaning through ‘memorable’ holiday experiences. This conclusion is important to consider because of the fl uidity of late modern identities (Bauman 2004, 2007); with young people increasingly expected to construct their own biographies (Helve & Bynner 2007) in uncertain times (Beck 1992, Giddens 1991); and doing so through the consumption of items such as alcohol, music and drugs (Furlong & Cartmel 1997, Miles 2000).

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