Deviance and Risk on Holiday An Ethnography of British Tourists in Ibiza

by Briggs, Daniel

• ISBN13: 9781137022394
• ISBN10: 1137022396
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2013-07-19
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

This book represents the first attempt to step inside the holiday experience of young British tourists. Using ethnographic methods such as observation, open-ended interviewing and focus groups in San Antonio, Ibiza, this book reveals the ugly truth about 'how' and 'why' young Brits get involved in deviance and risk-taking when they go abroad, exploring vivid accounts of drug use, drug dealing, violence, prostitution, and injury.

In contrast to existing knowledge and populist depictions, Briggs argues that the root of these behaviours is not pathological but rather it is more about how this social group have come to self validate what is expected of them in their leisure time and, as a consequence, how their attitudes are subtly guided and endorsed by the commodified social context of resorts which are only interested in making money at their expense.

Exploring issues of youth culture, political economy, tourism and identity, this book will appeal to scholars in sociology, criminology, cultural studies, tourism and youth studies.

Author Biography

Daniel Briggs is Reader in Criminology and Criminal Justice at University of East London, UK. He is author of Crack Cocaine Users: High Society and Low Life in South London (2012), editor of The English Riots of 2011: A Summer of Discontent (2012) and co-author of Assessing the Use and Impact of Anti-Social Behaviour Orders (2007).

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. The Flexible but Entirely Serious Methodology
3. The Theoretical Framework for the Study
4. Ibiza: The Research Context
5. Goin' Ibiza: Home Lives and the Holiday Hype
6. Constructing Ibiza: The Holiday Career and Status Stratification
7. 'You can be who you want to be, do what you want to do': Identity and Unfreedom
8. The Political Economy: Consumerism and the Commodification of Everything
9. Capitalismo Extremo: Risk-taking and Deviance in Context
10. Going Home…Only to Come Back Out
11. Discussion and Conclusion
12. Meanwhile Across the Mediterranean…(or so some wish)