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In good company: risk, security and choice in young people's drug decisions

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Pilkington, Hilary. (2007) In good company: risk, security and choice in young people's drug decisions. Sociological Review, Vol.55 (No.2). pp. 373-392. ISSN 0038-0261

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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-954X.2007.00710.x...

Abstract

This article draws on original empirical research with young people to question the degree to which 'individualisation of risk', as developed in the work of Beck and Giddens, adequately explains the risks young people bear and take. It draws on alternative understandings and critiques of 'risk' not to refute the notion of the reflexive individual upon which 'individualisation of risk' is based but to re-read that reflexivity in a more hermeneutic way. It explores specific risk-laden moments – young people's drug use decisions – in their natural social and cultural context of the friendship group. Studying these decisions in context, it suggests, reveals the meaning of 'risk' to be not given, but constructed through group discussion, disagreement and consensus and decisions taken to be rooted in emotional relations of trust, mutual accountability and common security. The article concludes that 'the individualisation of risk' fails to take adequate account of the significance of intersubjectivity in risk-decisions. It argues also that addressing the theoretical overemphasis on the individual bearer of risk requires not only further empirical testing of the theory but appropriate methodological reflection.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HV Social pathology. Social and public welfare
Divisions:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Sociology
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Risk-taking (Psychology) in adolescence, Teenagers -- Conduct of life, Drug abuse -- Social aspects, Risk -- Sociological aspects, Decision making in adolescence
Journal or Publication Title:	Sociological Review
Publisher:	Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
ISSN:	0038-0261
Date:	10 May 2007
Volume:	Vol.55
Number:	No.2
Page Range:	pp. 373-392
Identification Number:	10.1111/j.1467-954X.2007.00710.x
Status:	Peer Reviewed
Access rights to Published version:	Open Access
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URI:	http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/id/eprint/638