Thirlway, Frances orcid.org/0000-0002-8882-544X (2023) Subculture wars:the struggle for the vape industry. British Journal of Sociology. pp. 3-16. ISSN 1468-4446
Abstract
Drawing on a two-year study, I argue that the UK vape industry is engaged in a classificatory struggle between a subcultural industry and its ‘other’, the mainstream industry. I build on Thornton’s analysis of club culture to characterise the subcultural vape industry as a community of taste built round a masculine aesthetic and a commitment to authenticity and DIY practice. Its attachment to complex systems and masculine spaces risked excluding customers without specialist knowledge or interest. The mainstream industry included tobacco companies which promoted vaping as a complementary category to smoking, linking their own vaping products to historic meanings of the cigarette as a lifestyle product. This task was hampered by the toxic legacy of combusted tobacco and its increasing reversion to a generic category rather than a branded product. Finally, the success of the price-focused vaping industry has been largely overlooked, but suggests that for most consumers, electronic cigarettes are still a contrasting category to combusted tobacco and are purchased largely on price. I conclude that the exclusion of a feminised, classed ‘other’ is a defining element of subcultural formation, itself an overwhelmingly male mechanism of group identity construction.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2022 The Authors |
Keywords: | vape industry; subculture; consumption; authenticity; Bourdieu; field analysis |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of York |
Academic Units: | The University of York > Faculty of Social Sciences (York) > Sociology (York) |
Depositing User: | Pure (York) |
Date Deposited: | 27 Oct 2022 13:30 |
Last Modified: | 13 Jan 2025 00:09 |
Published Version: | https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-4446.12981 |
Status: | Published |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1111/1468-4446.12981 |
Sustainable Development Goals: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:192708 |
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