1.
To the students of the MIT ethnography course: Here’s a research report I did in the late 1990s. It may serve as a model for your presentation January 31 st . Please treat as a rough guide. You are free to invent your own form. Best, Grant McCracken

2.
Smoking Culture: the real “benefits” of smoking the true costs of quitting <ul><li>text by Grant McCracken, Ph.D. </li></ul><ul><li>video by Suzanne Stein, M.A. </li></ul><ul><li>Health Canada </li></ul><ul><li>March 12, 1998 </li></ul>

3.
presentation <ul><li>objectives </li></ul><ul><li>methods </li></ul><ul><li>research </li></ul><ul><li>smoking culture </li></ul><ul><li>section 1 </li></ul><ul><ul><li>cultural meanings </li></ul></ul><ul><li>section 2 </li></ul><ul><ul><li>cultural practices </li></ul></ul><ul><li>section 3 </li></ul><ul><ul><li>strategic responses </li></ul></ul><ul><li>conclusion </li></ul>

4.
objectives <ul><li>to investigate “smoking culture” </li></ul><ul><li>an anthropological account </li></ul><ul><li>smoking from the respondent’s point of view </li></ul><ul><li>beyond “peer group pressure” </li></ul><ul><li>cultural logic of smoking </li></ul><ul><li>cultural significance of smoking </li></ul><ul><li>the “benefits” of smoking </li></ul><ul><li>the true costs of quitting </li></ul><ul><li>what people are giving up when they quit </li></ul>

5.
methods <ul><li>ethnographic interviews </li></ul><ul><li>open-ended </li></ul><ul><ul><li>seeking key terms in situ </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>asking for their illumination </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>determination of cultural meanings & logic </li></ul></ul><ul><li>respondent directed </li></ul><ul><li>ethnographer a simpleton who knows that he doesn’t know </li></ul>

6.
research <ul><li>“intercept” interviews </li></ul><ul><ul><li>school grounds, street corners </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>10 minutes (+/-) </li></ul></ul><ul><li>drop-in interviews </li></ul><ul><ul><li>schools, skateboard parks </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>1-2 hour interviews (+/-) </li></ul></ul><ul><li>prearranged interviews </li></ul><ul><ul><li>homes </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>2 hours (+/-) </li></ul></ul><ul><li>30 hours of interviewing </li></ul><ul><li>50 teens </li></ul><ul><li>November 1997 - January 1998 </li></ul>

7.
caveats <ul><li>“ teens” no homogeneous category </li></ul><ul><ul><li>“ teens” in fact more various than “adults” </li></ul></ul><ul><li>a dubious category </li></ul><ul><ul><li>“ teens” not for reification </li></ul></ul><ul><li>surest way to get this wrong is to talk to teens as “teens” (Jaya) </li></ul><ul><ul><li>wellspring of bad communications </li></ul></ul><ul><li>these results speak for </li></ul><ul><ul><li>some but not all groups </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>some individuals but not all the time </li></ul></ul>

8.
shared objectives <ul><li>for all the diversity, there are some commonalities: </li></ul><ul><li>shared project </li></ul><ul><li>moving away from parental influences and authorities </li></ul><ul><li>the end of colonialism </li></ul><ul><li>a new imperative: how to construct this thing called a self </li></ul><ul><li>that is externally & internally plausible & habitable </li></ul><ul><li>esp. in a world without “franchising” </li></ul><ul><li>when, increasingly, selves are “custom-built” & “hand-made” </li></ul>

9.
smoking culture I <ul><li>some liberties with term </li></ul><ul><li>extraordinary resource </li></ul><ul><li>rich in definitional elements </li></ul><ul><li>experimental “routines” </li></ul><ul><li>the playwright’s chap book </li></ul><ul><li>not perfectly discrete </li></ul><ul><li>but robust & resilient </li></ul><ul><li>not impervious to commercial messages, the “movies.” or public health communications </li></ul><ul><li>but not changed without extraordinary effort & some cunning </li></ul>

10.
smoking culture II <ul><li>an ancient & active culture </li></ul><ul><li>knowledge passed down from generation to generation </li></ul><ul><li>a kind of folklore: what’s in a Player’s filter? </li></ul><ul><li>rituals of initiation </li></ul><ul><li>a liminal activity </li></ul><ul><li>a repertoire of behaviors </li></ul><ul><li>body of meanings, tissue of lies </li></ul><ul><li>affirmed constantly by marketing, movies, & every school yard </li></ul>

11.
preliminary goods news <ul><li>health warnings have had effect </li></ul><ul><li>as one respondent says </li></ul><ul><ul><li>“[warnings] scare the shit out of you” </li></ul></ul><ul><li>years of education have done their work </li></ul><ul><li>ancient culture penetrated </li></ul><ul><li>oral tradition has new content </li></ul><ul><li>given sheer density & power of smoking culture, no small accomplishment </li></ul>

12.
enduring bad news <ul><li>Canada > 500,000 teens smoke </li></ul><ul><li>with knowledge of health risks </li></ul><ul><li>with repeated warnings from </li></ul><ul><ul><li>school education </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>print advertising & TV spots </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>pack warnings </li></ul></ul><ul><li>the oral traditions of smoking culture shot through with new knowledge of hazards </li></ul><ul><li>but the culture continues, the culture recruits, the culture flourishes </li></ul>

13.
smoking culture <ul><li>one way out of the bad news? </li></ul><ul><li>teens look to smoking for something more than </li></ul><ul><ul><li>nicotine </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>group pressure </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>social accessory </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>dieting aid </li></ul></ul><ul><li>smoking culture perseveres because it serves as a definitional resource </li></ul><ul><li>a bundle of ways of thinking, acting, constructing the self </li></ul>

14.
true proportions of the problem <ul><li>when we ask people not to start </li></ul><ul><li>when we ask people to stop </li></ul><ul><li>we are asking them to give up nicotine, resist group pressure, forgo social accessory & dieting aid </li></ul><ul><li>but we’re also asking them to give up </li></ul><ul><li>a smoking culture </li></ul><ul><li>a chap book and repertoire </li></ul><ul><li>ways of thinking, acting, constructing the self </li></ul>

15.
the strategic challenge <ul><li>assess smoking culture </li></ul><ul><li>mapping the meanings </li></ul><ul><li>establishing the “meta-pragmatic” functions </li></ul><ul><li>what smoking means </li></ul><ul><li>how smoking is put to work </li></ul><ul><li>penetrating an ancient culture </li></ul><ul><li>reaffirmed by marketing, movies, & school yard </li></ul><ul><li>with communications strategies </li></ul><ul><li>that acknowledge the culture & the community </li></ul>

16.
Smoking culture in 3 sections <ul><li>section 1: cultural meanings </li></ul><ul><li>section 2: cultural practices </li></ul><ul><li>section 3: strategic responses </li></ul>

17.
section 1: cultural meanings

18.
smoking meaningless <ul><li>no intrinsic cultural meaning </li></ul><ul><li>the Bob Newhart routine </li></ul><ul><li>“you do what with it, Walter?” </li></ul><ul><li>well placed incredulity </li></ul><ul><li>smoking is a peculiar activity </li></ul><ul><li>we have given it cultural meaning & potency </li></ul><ul><li>we have made it meaning ful </li></ul><ul><li>we have made it a definitional resource </li></ul>

19.
cultural meanings <ul><li>gender </li></ul><ul><li>age </li></ul><ul><li>rebellion </li></ul><ul><li>style </li></ul><ul><li>showing cool </li></ul><ul><li>showing warm </li></ul><ul><li>mood manipulation </li></ul><ul><li>(not all of these mutually exclusive) </li></ul>

20.
gender <ul><li>smoking gets cultured </li></ul><ul><li>loaded up with meaning </li></ul><ul><li>more particularly </li></ul><ul><li>smoking gets gendered </li></ul><ul><li>as it turns out, in this culture it begins to take on maleness </li></ul><ul><li>the military legacy </li></ul><ul><li>the open range legacy </li></ul><ul><li>the noir legacy </li></ul><ul><li>(a partial list and hasty review) </li></ul>

21.
a caveat <ul><li>“maleness” </li></ul><ul><li>just as much a cultural construction as smoking </li></ul><ul><li>we resist this reading with notions of the biological & natural but culture > nature </li></ul><ul><li>this analysis treats “maleness” as a cultural construct </li></ul><ul><li>(indeed the culture of smoking and culture of maleness have helped construct one another) </li></ul>

22.
Lucky Strike <ul><li>war good to tobacco </li></ul><ul><li>took soldiers off to places tobacco cheap & plentiful </li></ul><ul><li>soldiers treated cigarettes the way prisoners do </li></ul><ul><li>U.S. Generals Grant & Sherman </li></ul><ul><li>British battleship Formidable </li></ul><ul><li>Lucky Strike & US troops </li></ul><ul><li>a clear cultural formulae </li></ul><ul><li>war helps define “maleness” and smoking together </li></ul><ul><li>smoking takes on “maleness” </li></ul>

23.
Marlboro <ul><li>the mythical world of wild west </li></ul><ul><li>more imagined than real </li></ul><ul><li>rugged individuals </li></ul><ul><li>rugged individualism </li></ul><ul><li>freedoms of the open plain </li></ul><ul><li>several notions of the frontier </li></ul><ul><li>a clear cultural formulae </li></ul><ul><li>frontier defines “maleness” and smoking together </li></ul><ul><li>smoking takes on “maleness” </li></ul>

24.
gumshoe tobacco <ul><li>smoking, prop of noir tradition </li></ul><ul><li>Humphrey Bogart’s transformation: hood to hero </li></ul><ul><li>defining image: HB squinting through a wall of smoke </li></ul><ul><li>definition of resourcefulness </li></ul><ul><li>symbol of self control, detachment, power </li></ul><ul><li>a clear cultural formulae </li></ul><ul><li>noir fiction defines “maleness” and smoking together </li></ul><ul><li>smoking takes on “maleness” </li></ul>

25.
tobacco and gender <ul><li>smoking taking on cultural meaning </li></ul><ul><li>gendered with “male” meanings from domains of war, frontier and noir </li></ul><ul><ul><li>outside worlds </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>worlds of action </li></ul></ul><ul><li>places of </li></ul><ul><ul><li>struggle and contest </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>toughness, aggression </li></ul></ul><ul><li>smoking a marker of self and other mastery </li></ul>

26.
the Camel caveat <ul><li>Camel’s originally an exercise in Said’s orientalism </li></ul><ul><li>made to evoke not gendered meanings but colonial ones </li></ul><ul><li>Marlboro began as a “female” brand & was regendered by the marketplace </li></ul><ul><li>in sum: “maleness” not the only gendered meaning in smoking culture </li></ul>

27.
smoking and males <ul><li>smoking puts a repertoire at the disposal of males </li></ul><ul><li>at crucial developmental moment: when constructing maleness </li></ul><ul><li>to create/claim certain qualities </li></ul><ul><li>proof must be forthcoming </li></ul><ul><li>smoking definitional, helps: </li></ul><ul><ul><li>“cure” the self </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>burn off eagerness </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>show toughness, aggression </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>self & (for?) other mastery </li></ul></ul>

28.
smoking and females (circa 1998) <ul><li>gender under construction </li></ul><ul><li>a rethinking of femaleness esp. </li></ul><ul><li>Mary Tyler Moore  Cybil </li></ul><ul><li>Marilyn  Madonna </li></ul><ul><li>Madonna  Courtney Love </li></ul><ul><li>Donna Reed  Roseanne </li></ul><ul><li>Joan Baez  Ani DiFranco </li></ul><ul><li>Phyllis Diller  Janeane Garofalo </li></ul><ul><li>Barbara Walters  Kathy Griffin (updated) </li></ul><ul><li>Ike & Tina Turner  Tina </li></ul>

29.
gender breakout <ul><li>breaking out of the prison house of gender </li></ul><ul><li>systematic refusal of old meanings assigned by gender </li></ul><ul><li>systematic survey of new definitional opportunities </li></ul><ul><li>taking possession of new meanings </li></ul><ul><li>some of them apparently “male” meanings </li></ul><ul><li>these will do nicely, thank you </li></ul>

30.
Boy Capel’s pants <ul><li>long standing strategy </li></ul><ul><li>Coco Chanel </li></ul><ul><li>the designer btw the wars </li></ul><ul><li>wore her lover’s riding pants </li></ul><ul><li>the world held its breath </li></ul><ul><li>a strategy to accompany that of the suffragette </li></ul><ul><li>power of the vote </li></ul><ul><li>power of rights of property </li></ul><ul><li>now, the secrets of hegemony </li></ul><ul><li>the very language of power </li></ul>

31.
smoking and females <ul><li>Ani DiFranco as the key text </li></ul><ul><li>coming of age in NA society </li></ul><ul><li>the horrifying discovery </li></ul><ul><li>“ that i live in a breakable, take-able body </li></ul><ul><li>an ever-increasingly valuable body” (My IQ, Puddle Dive) </li></ul><ul><li>the traditional qualities of “femaleness” are </li></ul><ul><ul><li>assumptions of vulnerability </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>invitations to harassment </li></ul></ul><ul><li>coming of age as exposure to risk </li></ul>

32.
smoking culture in action <ul><li>meanings of smoking useful </li></ul><ul><li>allow females to summon cultural meanings against sexist definitions of the self </li></ul><ul><li>allow construction of new selves with defensive properties </li></ul><ul><li>several interpretive possibilities: </li></ul><ul><ul><li>I refuse trad. gender defs. (&?) </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>I show invulnerability (&?) </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>I corrupt myself before you do </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>I corrupt myself so you cannot </li></ul></ul><ul><li>more work needed but one “benefit” of smoking culture </li></ul>

33.
age <ul><li>age a matter of culture </li></ul><ul><li>some cultures usher people into adulthood upon sexual maturity </li></ul><ul><li>our culture makes a space between childhood & adulthood </li></ul><ul><li>& provides no rite of passage </li></ul><ul><li>always a contested transition </li></ul><ul><ul><li>“teen” claiming early entry </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>parents demanding late </li></ul></ul><ul><li>people must fashion own passage </li></ul><ul><li>claim & construct their maturity </li></ul>

34.
smoking and age <ul><li>many things make smoking redolent of maturity </li></ul><ul><li>one of the viseral experiences of the adults around you </li></ul><ul><li>cigar smoke and starch </li></ul><ul><li>but we are always saying “this is for adults” </li></ul><ul><li>and now we do it as health policy </li></ul><ul><li>smoking always forbidden fruit </li></ul><ul><li>now especially so </li></ul>

35.
vexing paradox <ul><li>the more we decry smoking </li></ul><ul><li>the more we declare not for children and teens </li></ul><ul><li>the more we mark it off as risk and danger </li></ul><ul><li>the more attractive it becomes </li></ul><ul><li>much of the health policy that has worked so well </li></ul><ul><li>has only helped to increase this particular cultural meaning </li></ul><ul><li>cause for other and new strategies </li></ul>

36.
the promethean factor(?) <ul><li>it’s almost as if... </li></ul><ul><li>(anthropological heresy) </li></ul><ul><li>smoking is the fire/power of the Gods </li></ul><ul><li>to steal this substance </li></ul><ul><li>is to steal this power </li></ul><ul><li>the thrill of that first cigarette </li></ul><ul><li>the cunning, stealth, the liminal space, the stolen cigarette </li></ul><ul><li>as close as anything gets to a rite of passage </li></ul>

37.
the post-promethean factor(?) <ul><li>it’s almost as if... </li></ul><ul><li>(caveat goes here) </li></ul><ul><li>one respondent: </li></ul><ul><li>it’s like fire coming out of your mouth </li></ul><ul><li>is this a claiming of powers beyond the parental </li></ul><ul><li>a claiming of powers beyond the bourgeois </li></ul><ul><li>a claiming of powers unknown or repudiated by the adult </li></ul><ul><li>a suggestion only </li></ul>

38.
claiming age <ul><li>single most telling marker of youth, childhood is eagerness </li></ul><ul><li>the way teens know children is by the latter’s excitableness </li></ul><ul><li>the most embarrassing moment is the irruption of excitableness </li></ul><ul><li>smoking a superb device for extinguishing eagerness </li></ul><ul><li>at a stroke (?) eagerness is gone </li></ul><ul><li>a useful way to prevent irruption </li></ul>

39.
smoking culture in action <ul><li>cultural meanings of tobacco </li></ul><ul><li>make smoking an opportunity to claim maturity </li></ul><ul><li>to prosecute the case for new freedoms and privileges </li></ul><ul><li>and new autonomy from parental control </li></ul><ul><li>smoking culture provides home-made, self bestowed rite of passage </li></ul><ul><li>another “benefit” of smoking culture </li></ul>

40.
rebellion <ul><li>smoking as the badge of refusal </li></ul><ul><li>the American cult of the outsider </li></ul><ul><li>a James Dean Legacy </li></ul><ul><li>now stock Hollywood image </li></ul><ul><li>at the movies still </li></ul><ul><li>“the villain always smokes” </li></ul><ul><li>once largely male, less and less gendered (cf. Thelma & Louise) </li></ul><ul><li>rule breaking </li></ul><ul><li>the self damage logic (tattooing) </li></ul>

41.
familiar paradox <ul><li>the more we decry smoking </li></ul><ul><li>the more we declare not for children and teens </li></ul><ul><li>the more we mark it off as risk and danger </li></ul><ul><li>the more it becomes an opportunity to break rules </li></ul><ul><li>to play out the outsider’s posture </li></ul><ul><li>much of the health policy that has worked so well </li></ul><ul><li>cause for other and new strategies </li></ul>

42.
cosa nostra <ul><li>one respondent: It’s our thing </li></ul><ul><li>do not tell us what to do </li></ul><ul><li>inverted refusal </li></ul><ul><li>under “age:” adults saying it’s our thing </li></ul><ul><li>here: teens saying it’s our thing </li></ul><ul><li>our badge of refusal </li></ul><ul><li>we refuse your terms of engagement </li></ul><ul><li>we will make our own way </li></ul><ul><li>a key “benefit” of smoking culture </li></ul>

43.
style and pattern <ul><li>the great induction </li></ul><ul><li>to an arbitrary system </li></ul><ul><li>the things you have to learn </li></ul><ul><li>how to </li></ul><ul><ul><li>hold in hand </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>hold in mouth </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>to open, extract, hide, exchange </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>to inhale, exhale </li></ul></ul><ul><li>highly patterned, specific </li></ul><ul><li>big penalties for error </li></ul><ul><li>getting to sprezzatura </li></ul>

44.
messages in the bottle <ul><li>style the medium of many messages </li></ul><ul><li>i.e., gender, age, rebellion </li></ul><ul><li>place of hiding (see section 2) </li></ul><ul><li>the opportunity for scrutiny: the line of tin cans </li></ul><ul><li>marker of membership </li></ul><ul><li>texture of social experience </li></ul><ul><li>the stuff of an ancient culture </li></ul><ul><li>ritual architecture of the moment </li></ul><ul><li>sub-group differences: ravers... </li></ul>

45.
smoking culture in action <ul><li>not hard wired but hot wired </li></ul><ul><li>repeated until burned into muscle memory </li></ul><ul><li>habitual knowledge </li></ul><ul><li>difficult to learn </li></ul><ul><li>deeply comforting to know </li></ul><ul><li>a useful marker in the world </li></ul><ul><li>the very door of induction </li></ul><ul><li>the very stuff of “our thing” </li></ul><ul><li>a “benefit” of smoking culture </li></ul>

46.
the construction of cool <ul><li>a moment in the field </li></ul><ul><li>very young teen makes mistake </li></ul><ul><li>an error actually of style </li></ul><ul><li>cigarette mishandled, disappears </li></ul><ul><li>the collapse of the managed self </li></ul><ul><li>momentary panic: coat in flames? </li></ul><ul><li>then surveillance </li></ul><ul><li>had cool produced by smoking been damaged by smoking? </li></ul><ul><li>were friends smirking? yes! </li></ul><ul><li>remarkably, his cool held </li></ul>

47.
cool and power <ul><li>“ cool” in our culture several origins, several meanings </li></ul><ul><li>our concern, disengagement </li></ul><ul><li>Elizabethan cool </li></ul><ul><li>men’s hearts be free and they will love whom they lyste </li></ul><ul><li>we don’t have to show our compliance </li></ul><ul><li>we may offer up obedience, but we will withhold this </li></ul><ul><li>smoking as a show of withholding </li></ul>

48.
cool as contract <ul><li>smoking invested with cool by military, Western, & noir trads. </li></ul><ul><li>Humphrey Bogart as an early creature of cool </li></ul><ul><li>self control at work in our culture, this community & incident </li></ul><ul><li>but, more pressingly, cool is: </li></ul><ul><li>distance and disengagement from the social moment </li></ul><ul><li>a withholding, a show of discretionary power </li></ul><ul><li>that participation is not coerced </li></ul>

49.
smoking culture in action <ul><li>another message of messages </li></ul><ul><li>distance from childhood </li></ul><ul><li>refusal of parenthood </li></ul><ul><li>protective barrier behind which the difficult business of self construction can be conducted </li></ul><ul><li>a political message </li></ul><ul><li>a statement of structural place in the world at the moment this place is disputed and negotiated </li></ul><ul><li>a “benefit” of smoking culture </li></ul>

50.
construction of warm <ul><li>smoking culture a rich one </li></ul><ul><li>contains X and not-X </li></ul><ul><li>easy to make too much of cool </li></ul><ul><li>smoking also a means to be “warm” </li></ul><ul><li>a way to show engagement, vividness </li></ul><ul><li>to be present, engaged, excited </li></ul><ul><li>more on this in section 2 </li></ul><ul><li>another “benefit” smoking culture </li></ul>

51.
the construction of threat <ul><li>the visual preemptive strike </li></ul><ul><li>a way not just of declaring toughness (within or without gender idiom) </li></ul><ul><li>also a way of declaring malevolent intent </li></ul><ul><li>sometimes merely preemptive </li></ul><ul><li>if you attack me, you can expect response in kind </li></ul><ul><li>but sometimes more forthright </li></ul><ul><li>I am to be feared </li></ul><ul><li>“benefit” of smoking culture </li></ul>

52.
mood manipulation <ul><li>respondents clear on use of smoking for “self medication” </li></ul><ul><li>smoking as calming </li></ul><ul><li>creates a place in space </li></ul><ul><li>creates a moment in time </li></ul><ul><li>creates a focus </li></ul><ul><li>creates justification in a culture that treats inactivity as idleness </li></ul><ul><li>creates an “away” experience </li></ul><ul><li>change in focal plane </li></ul><ul><li>disengagement not as politics but as palliative </li></ul>

53.
mood manipulation <ul><li>highly structured, ritualized </li></ul><ul><li>breaks individuals out of time and space </li></ul><ul><li>gives pretext </li></ul><ul><li>forgives, allows disengagement </li></ul><ul><li>an opportunity to reestablish self possession and/or cool </li></ul><ul><li>meanings working in concert </li></ul><ul><li>smoking as place of respite </li></ul><ul><li>smoking as reliable companion </li></ul><ul><li>key “benefit” of smoking culture </li></ul>

54.
section 2: cultural practices

55.
smoking useful <ul><li>gets “social work” done </li></ul><ul><li>from Canada’s contribution to social sciences: Irving Goffman </li></ul><ul><li>highly strategic device in “impression management” & the presentation of self </li></ul><ul><li>from Michael Silverstein </li></ul><ul><li>highly strategic “meta-pragmatic function” </li></ul><ul><li>how smoking helps get work done </li></ul>

56.
sociality <ul><li>solitary smoking </li></ul><ul><li>ticket of admission </li></ul><ul><li>meeting someone (micro) </li></ul><ul><li>license to join (macro) </li></ul><ul><li>sustain self/role/occasion/face </li></ul><ul><li>the problem of social smoking </li></ul>

57.
solitary smoking <ul><li>solitary smoking is a social act </li></ul><ul><li>there is a relationship between smoking and smoker </li></ul><ul><li>writing, thinking, walking </li></ul><ul><li>giving respite, separation, pacing, concentration </li></ul><ul><li>“ portable world” phenomenon </li></ul><ul><li>the companionable cigarette </li></ul><ul><li>whatever happens at least I have my smokes </li></ul><ul><li>building and maintaining the rlts with the self </li></ul><ul><li>self management, meta-pragmatic function & benefit </li></ul>

58.
ticket of admission <ul><li>smoking has still more powerful uses as instrument of sociality </li></ul><ul><li>for some a ticket of admission </li></ul><ul><li>one respondent: “I never came out here before I started smoking because I found everyone so intimidating” </li></ul><ul><li>some spaces & friends off limits to many non-smokers </li></ul><ul><li>cigarettes work crudely as badge of membership </li></ul><ul><li>meta-pragmatic function & benefit </li></ul>

59.
meeting someone <ul><li>a more micro social device </li></ul><ul><li>smoking as pretext & text for meeting </li></ul><ul><li>style and pattern of smoking offers permission and script </li></ul><ul><li>you may approach to ask for a cigarette/drag/puff </li></ul><ul><li>how you approach to ask for a cigarette/drag/puff </li></ul><ul><li>& then manage relationships through exchange of smokes </li></ul><ul><li>some social circles a Kula ring </li></ul>

60.
sustaining performances at risk <ul><li>Goffman argues every social actor (teen or not) constantly at risk of error and loss of face </li></ul><ul><li>what is not successfully “in process” at risk of coming undone </li></ul><ul><li>nothing is utterly, definitively said or done in social life </li></ul><ul><li>everything must be renewed and acquitted </li></ul><ul><li>everyone inclined to social error, some teens esp. inclined to it </li></ul>

61.
when things to wrong <ul><li>we are gifted with impression management strategies </li></ul><ul><li>& meta-management strategies </li></ul><ul><li>what to do when things go wrong </li></ul><ul><li>pea on table; you cannot bale </li></ul><ul><li>smoking as a perfect place of first resort </li></ul><ul><li>finding, lighting, smoking all give pretexts for the removal, renewal, repair </li></ul><ul><li>strategy and benefit without which you’re vulnerable </li></ul>

62.
sustaining role/occasion in danger <ul><li>Goffman argues every social moment (teen or not) constantly at risk of error and loss of face </li></ul><ul><li>what is not in process at risk of dissolution </li></ul><ul><li>when things go wrong, they can get bad </li></ul><ul><li>a great sliding into difficult </li></ul><ul><li>arrest the slide or ... </li></ul><ul><li>smoking culture to the rescue </li></ul>

63.
section 3: strategic responses

64.
smoking culture <ul><li>meanings in review </li></ul><ul><ul><li>gender </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>age </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>rebellion </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>style </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>cool </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>warm </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>threat </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>mood </li></ul></ul><ul><li>real “benefits” </li></ul><ul><li>true costs </li></ul>

65.
smoking culture II <ul><li>practices in review </li></ul><ul><ul><li>solitary smoking </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>joining a group </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>establishing a relationship </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>sustaining performances at risk </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>smoking as text and pretext </li></ul></ul><ul><li>real “benefits” </li></ul><ul><li>true costs </li></ul>

66.
communications caveat I <ul><li>this group deeply suspicious </li></ul><ul><ul><li>of an adult world </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>and more particularly of </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>medical authority </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>government authority </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>marketing “persuasions” </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>social scientists </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>journalists </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>popular culture makers (Hollywood, music...) </li></ul></ul><ul><li>they have seen the “man behind the curtain” </li></ul><ul><li>they are not impressed </li></ul>

67.
communications caveat II <ul><li>this is not a group </li></ul><ul><ul><li>that can be patronized </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>that can be “played” </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>that will respond to threats </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>that will respond to promises </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>that will respond to blandishments </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>that will suffer fools gladly </li></ul></ul><ul><li>this group possesses media literacy </li></ul><ul><li>they will spot artifice, stratagem </li></ul><ul><li>all but the most candid, transparent strategies ill advised </li></ul>

68.
communications caveat III <ul><li>they do not wish to be called “teens” </li></ul><ul><li>they do not wish to be treated as a group (Jesse) </li></ul><ul><li>they do not wish to be “played back” to themselves </li></ul><ul><li>esp. not by an art director’s (or anthropologist) </li></ul><ul><li>most important: don’t try to be one of them </li></ul><ul><li>don’t try to be “cool” (or “warm”) </li></ul>

69.
existing communications strategies <ul><li>government efforts in general </li></ul><ul><li>recollected advertising </li></ul><ul><li>health warnings on packages </li></ul>

70.
government efforts in general <ul><li>evidence of accomplishment </li></ul><ul><li>“scare the crap out of you and that’s good” </li></ul><ul><li>“I remember the first time I saw the woman withering away, I went whoa” </li></ul><ul><li>“they should go extreme, otherwise kids won’t here, they’re listening to MTV” </li></ul><ul><li>mixed reviews </li></ul>

71.
health warnings on package <ul><li>some approve: </li></ul><ul><li>warning on boxes is good, a second thought </li></ul><ul><li>some disregard </li></ul><ul><li>some mock </li></ul><ul><li>some collect and mock </li></ul><ul><li>some rework to mock </li></ul>

72.
problem with health warnings on package <ul><li>voice of authority </li></ul><ul><li>voice of adult authority </li></ul><ul><li>voice of adult government authority </li></ul><ul><li>voice of adult government and medical authority </li></ul><ul><li>“don’t tell me what I can and can’t do” </li></ul>

73.
new communications strats <ul><li>when to intervene </li></ul><ul><li>older to younger </li></ul><ul><li>ad busting </li></ul><ul><li>new warnings on pack </li></ul><ul><li>media literacy </li></ul><ul><li>website </li></ul><ul><li>CD ROM </li></ul><ul><li>anthropologist </li></ul><ul><li>noticing how people smoke </li></ul><ul><li>noticing all the things noticed here </li></ul>

74.
when to intervene <ul><li>a crucial summer </li></ul><ul><li>a liminal time </li></ul><ul><li>no longer the lord of junior high </li></ul><ul><li>no longer the captive of day care </li></ul><ul><li>newly attentive to popular culture </li></ul><ul><li>between programs </li></ul><ul><li>a moment of vulnerability, opportunity, curiosity </li></ul><ul><li>the moment to make contact </li></ul>

75.
new strategies: older to younger <ul><li>it is clear that some younger teens smoke to establish credentials to join older teens </li></ul><ul><li>they believe that they look older </li></ul><ul><li>collect video of older teens saying otherwise </li></ul><ul><li>e.g., “they look disparate to me, like they are trying to hard” </li></ul><ul><li>this is teens talking to teens through intermediary of government </li></ul>

76.
new strategies: ad busting <ul><li>we know that the corporate connection helps sensitize teens to smoking </li></ul><ul><li>we know there is activism here </li></ul><ul><li>we know there is an “anti-smoking culture” in the works </li></ul><ul><li>encourage “anti-smoking culture” </li></ul><ul><li>encourage ad busting ideology </li></ul><ul><li>this is teens by teens for teens </li></ul>

77.
new strategies: health warnings <ul><li>design according to teen suggestions, e.g., </li></ul><ul><li>person’s face before and after smoking </li></ul><ul><li>tongue cancer, throat cancer </li></ul><ul><li>x-ray of cancerous lung </li></ul><ul><li>wake-up stupid </li></ul><ul><li>cancer cell mutating </li></ul><ul><li>a crowd of people standing around a hospital bed </li></ul><ul><li>you’re cool </li></ul>

78.
new strategies: noticing media (media literacy) <ul><li>create materials for school boards and websites </li></ul><ul><li>encourage media literacy courses at younger age </li></ul><ul><li>supply movie footage, advertising reels, print ads </li></ul><ul><li>supply some “things to look for” possibilities </li></ul><ul><li>leave it to teens to instruct teens </li></ul><ul><li>wait for adbusting perspective to emerge </li></ul>

79.
new strategies: noticing smoking culture (anthropology) <ul><li>create materials for school boards and websites </li></ul><ul><li>encourage “culture busting” </li></ul><ul><li>a sensitivity that encourages self consciousness and intervention </li></ul><ul><li>supply movie footage, etc. </li></ul><ul><li>supply some noticing possibilities </li></ul><ul><li>leave teens to instruct teens </li></ul><ul><li>wait for culture busting sentiment to emerge </li></ul>

80.
new strategies: website & CD <ul><li>delivery vehicle for classrooms & noticing media and noticing smoking culture programs </li></ul><ul><li>archive </li></ul><ul><ul><li>movie clips </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>TV & print tobacco ads </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>ethnograpic video </li></ul></ul><ul><li>critiquing opportunities </li></ul><ul><ul><li>old communications </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>proposed communications </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>voting & comment systems </li></ul></ul><ul><li>(for CD) chat line </li></ul>

81.
new strategies: “smokes and booze” strategy <ul><li>Avi Lewis’ New Music treatment “Smokes and Booze” </li></ul><ul><li>new penetration of beer & cigarette marketing in rock </li></ul><ul><li>clear discomfort on part of musicians & fans </li></ul><ul><li>create “musicians against tobacco” campaign fund </li></ul><ul><li>each band contributes % of tobacco supported work </li></ul><ul><li> bands come clean </li></ul><ul><li>creates a concert system that needs no Tobacco Ind. support </li></ul><ul><li> industry/fans come clean </li></ul>

82.
summary <ul><li>objectives </li></ul><ul><li>methods </li></ul><ul><li>research </li></ul><ul><li>smoking culture </li></ul><ul><li>section 1 </li></ul><ul><ul><li>cultural meanings </li></ul></ul><ul><li>section 2 </li></ul><ul><ul><li>cultural practices </li></ul></ul><ul><li>section 3 </li></ul><ul><ul><li>strategic responses </li></ul></ul><ul><li>conclusion </li></ul>