Discourses of Consumer's Alcohol Resistant Identities

Abstract

This study examines how abstinence from excessive drinking is meaningful to young people. By rejecting the dominant norm of intoxication young people engage in anticonsumption practices that involve degrees of antichoice (Hogg et al., 2008). In this context, resistance is viewed as a source of innovation where consumers produce and co-produce a value paradigm that is oppositional to the "dominant norm" of excessive drinking. Conceptualizing alcohol consumption as a performance inclusive of different degrees of antichoice contributes to a more nuanced view of how rejection operates alongside excess. Importantly, viewing alcohol consumption through a resistance lens reconsiders exploration of youth binge drinking beyond a dominant health paradigm of "at-risk" behavior with an understanding of value and the co-creation of value by consumers within a broader consumption environment.