Ööklubid sotsiaalsete suhete (taas)loojana
Kuupäev
2005
Autorid
Ajakirja pealkiri
Ajakirja ISSN
Köite pealkiri
Kirjastaja
Abstrakt
Kirjeldus
The title of my research paper is “Night clubs as (re)creators of social
relationships”. Whilst nightclubs have gained popularity amongst youth, studying this
field helps to understand their way of thinking and acting.
My work concentrates on creating and recreating acquaintances in the nightclub,
on what kind on stereotypes people use to describe clubs and on how much people
identify themselves through the nightclubs.
My research relies on earlier studies conducted by Allaste (2005), Nigul (2004),
myself and Kirikmäe (2005). The most important theoretical concepts are
“stereotypes”, “identity” and “social categorising” which are all expounded in the first
part of my work.
The method I chose to gather information with is semi-structured interview. This
method did not set too clear boundaries for people I interviewed, so they had a chance
to express their experience, opinions and thoughts more freely. I interviewed 13
young people (aged 20-23), 5 male and 8 female. All of them had visited a night club
more than six times during the past six months. They favoured mainly alternative
music and were college students.
I found out following: nightclubs are a common place to meet new people.
Respondents considered it to be convenient because of the security, you are free to
end any contacts with strangers and people visiting the same club have usually
something in common. There are also some negative aspects in creating new
acquaintances like the loud music, befuddled customers and the superficiality of the
contact. 10 out of 13 respondents had made an acquaintance (which lasted longer than
one night) and 11 out of 13 knew someone who had made an acquaintance in a night
club.
Most people I interviewed said that clubs are a common place to meet old
friends one has not seen for a long time. They also paid more attention to them than
they would have in the street. In clubs individuals have more time, they are usually in
good mood and more open minded. All that helps to overcome the distance time may
have created.
Stereotypes are very popular tools describing the world of nightclubs. People
were categorised on the basis of their attitude towards the event, club, music, opposite sex and creating an acquaintance. In addition, respondents used stereotypes to
describe nightclubs as well.
These stereotypes are also used to identify a person’s position in the society. The
preference of the club (and music style) helps to establish in- and out-groups. People
identify themselves through opposing to the out-group, letting others know what they
are not. It is very important that the in-group has a positive attitude towards the
individual.
The given thesis focuses mainly on people favouring the alternative music,
future works should pay more attention to individuals favouring the popular music
played in radio. How much they like meeting new people in clubs, do they identify
themselves through nightclubs and what kind of stereotypes are far-spread.
My work is just exploring the field of nightclubs. This research area should be
given more attention in the future, because it has a significant part in young people’s
lives.
Märksõnad
H Social Sciences (General), bakalaureusetööd