The Student Drinking Experience Expectations, Friendship and Drinking Practices Hazel Marsh B.A., M.A 2018 Department of Sociology Lancaster University This thesis is submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Declaration I, Hazel Marsh, hereby declare that this thesis is my own original work and has not been submitted for assessment purposes at any other institution. I have acknowledged and cited all sources used. 1 Acknowledgements This work was supported by the Economic and Social Research Council. I would like to acknowledge with sincere gratitude the guidance of my supervisors, Anne Cronin and Karenza Moore, who provided me with not only their expertise but also encouragement, inspiration and, above all, their support. Thank you both, I consider myself very lucky to have had you both ‘in my corner’. I would also like to thank the participants who took part in this research, and who so kindly shared their stories with me; Chris, for all of your help and support especially in organising and carrying out fieldwork; the police officer for your kindness and for saying ‘yes’ to observations when so many others were saying ‘no’; Rebecca Coleman for first believing I could do this; Joanne and the Writing Space team for your kindness, biscuits, and for the morale and confidence boosts; and the encouragement and suggestions of my examiners Carolyn Jackson and Thomas Thurnell-Read. I also wish to acknowledge my wonderful family (all of them!) for their constant support, particularly: my brilliant parents, Mum and Tony; Dad and Wendy; my sister Maria and niece Sophie; my Grandad; Auntie Jill; and Heather, Rachel and Natalie. Thank you all for the support, the brews, the walks, the chats, and the laughter. My amazing friends Ashlei, Kerry, Jenni, Laura, Izaak, Katrina, Jon, and the lovely Stephen - you are the best distractions from work, thank you! To my brilliant office mate, Emily – what would I have done without you?! Finally, to my Nana, who would have celebrated the most, I did it! 2 Abstract The ‘student experience’ is a recent ‘buzzword’ that has emerged in the UK alongside the repositioning of students as consumers (see Bunce et al, 2016). Universities market themselves as providing the means for students to be both academically and socially ‘successful’, however, the dominant form of socialising for students, outside of everyday life at university, is participating in a university drinking cultures (UDC). This raises a number of issues in relation to risk, harm reduction, gender, inclusivity and reputation. There is a plethora of data and literature that proposes methods and interventions to decrease both young people’s harmful drinking and the associated behaviours (e.g. Harrison et al, 2011; Hutton, 2012; Ramstedt et al, 2013; Spencer, 2013; Kelley, 2017). However, young people are notoriously difficult to reach with harm reduction and safety campaigns which stem from a top-down approach denying the pleasures, agency and social ties (Thurnell-Read, 2016) of those they are aimed at. Drawing on observations and analysis of qualitative interviews with a range of university students, staff, and a secret Facebook focus group with pre-university students, this research argues that students are aware of the risks associated with alcohol consumption but actively prioritise friendship and their social lives over any concerns, whilst negotiating the drinking culture with their own strategies or ‘risk rituals’ (Moore & Burgess, 2011). Indeed, friendship was a key concern for participants in this study, with UDC utilised by students to both meet new friends and maintain friendships. However, with the societal idea and ‘norm’ of the typical student bound up in UDC, and with its relation to friendship practices, I argue that students who abstain from or limit alcohol intake at university are subject to ‘dividing practices’ (Foucault, 1982). There is an awareness of this amongst young people; highlighted here by the pre-university students who discussed their expectations of UDC and planned/established ‘survival’ techniques should they wish to avoid it. Expectations then, serve to affect the transition of students to university life, for unrealistic expectations can cause stress and discomfort. This thesis draws together ideas of a UDC, expectations, friendship, gender, dividing practices, the student as a ‘subject’ and risk rituals to provide a snapshot of the current ‘student drinking experience’ and its implications. 3 Table of Contents Page 3: Abstract Page 7: Chapter One: Introduction Page 14: Chapter Two: Literature Review Page 15: 2.1. Theoretical Framework: Foucault Page 18: 2.2. Drinking Cultures and Practices of Drinking Page 25: 2.3. Expectations and the Transition to University Page 29: 2.4. Friendship Page 31: 2.5. Intercultural Friendship at University Page 35: 2.6. Alcohol and Friendship Page 39: 2.7. Social Media, Friendship and Alcohol Page 41: 2.8. Harm Reduction Page 49: 2.9. Students’ Management of University Drinking Cultures: ‘Risk Rituals’ and their Relation to Harm Reduction Page 53: 2.10. Gender, Alcohol and ‘Lad Culture’ Page 59: 2.11. Anti-Consumption and Abstention Page 63: Chapter Three: Methodology Page 63: 3.1. Contextual Background Page 64: 3.2. Interviews, Key Questions and Recruitment Page 73: 3.3. The Secret Facebook Focus Group Page 76: 3.4. Coding and Analysis Page 78: 3.5. Observations Page 79: 3.6. Insider-Outsider Research Page 83: 3.7. Ethics and Emotion Page 86: 3.8. Building Rapport and Faking Friendship Page 92: 3.9. Conclusion 4 Page 94: Chapter Four: The Pervasiveness of Alcohol in Expectations and Experiences of Starting University Page 94: 4.1. Introduction Page 95: 4.2. Expectations, Prior Knowledge and the First Foray into University Life Page 96: 4.2.1. The power of expectations Page 103: 4.2.2. Freshers’ week and the introduction to university life Page 112: 4.3. Experiencing and Adapting to Social Life at University Page 113: 4.3.1. The role of Freshers’ Reps as tradition keepers and markers of what it means to be a ‘student’ Page 119: 4.3.2. Experiences and revised expectations Page 132: 4.4. Conclusion Page 134: Chapter Five: The Significance of Friendships in University Drinking Cultures Page 134: 5.1. Introduction Page 135: 5.2. Fostering Friendship at University Page 136: 5.2.1. The privileging of alcohol consumption as a friendship making practice and a cultural distinction Page 147: 5.2.2. Maintaining relationships: drinking and ‘going out’ as methods of sustaining friendships Page 156: 5.3. Friendship Roles in University Drinking Cultures Page 157: 5.3.1. Friendship roles and caregiving within university drinking cultures Page 165: 5.3.2. Are caregiving roles and drinking practices reinforcing gender stereotypes? Page 175: 5.4. Conclusion Page 178: Chapter Six: How do Students Perceive and Manage the Effects of University Drinking Cultures ? Page 178: 6.1. Introduction Page 180: 6.2. The Best of Both Worlds: Students, Authority and Consequences Page 181: 6.2.1. The university safety net: does life at university represent the ‘real’ world? 5 Page 188: 6.2.2. Student responses to authority and harm reduction information Page 198: 6.3. Students Coping with University Drinking Cultures: Management Strategies and ‘Risk Rituals’ Page 199: 6.3.1. Management strategies and ‘risk rituals’ at individual and friendship levels Page 206: 6.3.2. Gendered management of university drinking cultures Page 216: 6.3.3. The effects of managing university drinking cultures through abstention Page 221: 6.4. Conclusion Page 223: Chapter Seven: Conclusion Page 233: Reference List List of Tables: Page 67: Table A: Individual Student and Staff Interviewees Page 72: Table B: Pair and Friendship Group Interviewees Page 76: Page Table C: Secret Facebook Focus Group Interviewees List of Appendices: Page 252: Appendix A: Individual/ Group Interview Question Guidance: Page 253: Appendix B: Postgraduate Interview Question Guidance Page 254: Appendix C: Recent Graduates Interview Question Guidance Page 255: Appendix D: Secret Facebook Focus Group Question Schedule Page 255: Appendix E: Secret Facebook Focus Group Follow-Up Question Schedule Page 256: Appendix F: Alice Coded Interview Section Page 257: Appendix G: Becky, Betty, Ryan Coded Interview Section Page 258: Appendix H: Secret Facebook Focus Group Coded Section Page 259: Appendix J: List of Thematic Codes 6 Chapter One: Introduction The ‘student experience’ is a recent buzzword that has emerged alongside the repositioning of university students as consumers (in line with the Consumer Rights Act 2015) and has been defined as ‘the totality of a student’s interaction’ with their institution (Temple et al, 2014: 3). The ‘student experience’ encompasses both the ‘academic experience’ and ‘campus experience’, and also extends beyond university time to the ‘application experience’ and ‘graduate experience’ which form part of ‘the student journey’ (Temple et al, 2014: 3). In this culture universities are ranked not only in terms of academic league tables but by surveys such as the Times Higher Education's Student Experience Survey, which in 2017 was based on results across seven composite groups which cover: academic experience, university facilities, societal experience, student welfare, accommodation, industry connections, and security (see Bhardwa, 2017). What this research is most interested in, however, are the University Drinking Cultures (herein UDC) that form such a big part of the sociality of students