ABSTRACT
Both sociological and popular conceptions of ‘youth’ tend to portray young people either as ‘victims’ of social and economic restructuring or as troublesome rebels liable to succumb to the excesses of drug and alcohol dependency and violence (Miles 2000). Both of these positions constitute gross oversimplifications. Young people are active, creative negotiators of the relationship between structure and agency (see McDonald 1999). This creativity is expressed most clearly in the context of consumption: the sociocultural arena within which the young are, or at least should be, able to navigate through the uncertainties of social change. The problem with discourses on youth consumption, however, is that these tend to focus on young people as risk-takers (Plant and Plant 1992) or as risky consumers which thereby reinforces a pathological model of youth (Miles 2000). Discussions of young people’s health suffer from the same problem (Brannen et al. 1994).
