This publication is presented to you through Paradigm Publishing Services
Rutgers University Press
Book
Open Access
Intoxication
An Ethnography of Effervescent Revelry
-
Sébastien Tutenges
-
Funded by:
Lund University
Language:
English
Published/Copyright:
2023
About this book
For two decades, Sébastien Tutenges has conducted research in bars, nightclubs, festivals, drug dens, nightlife resorts, and underground dance parties in a quest to answer a fundamental question: Why do people across cultures gather regularly to intoxicate themselves?
Vivid and at times deeply personal, this book offers new insights into a wide variety of intoxicating experiences, from the intimate feeling of connection among concertgoers to the adrenaline-fueled rush of a fight, to the thrill of jumping off a balcony into a swimming pool. Tutenges shows what it means and feels to move beyond the ordinary into altered states in which the transgressive, spectacular, and unexpected take place.
He argues that the primary aim of group intoxication is the religious experience that Émile Durkheim calls collective effervescence, the essence of which is a sense of connecting with other people and being part of a larger whole. This experience is empowering and emboldening and may lead to crime and deviance, but it is at the same time vital to our humanity because it strengthens social bonds and solidarity.
The book fills important gaps in Durkheim’s social theory and contributes to current debates in micro-sociology as well as cultural criminology and cultural sociology. Here, for the first time, readers will discover a detailed account of collective effervescence in contemporary society that includes: an explanation of what collective effervescence is; a description of the conditions that generate collective effervescence; a typology of the varieties of collective effervescence; a discussion of how collective effervescence manifests in the realm of nightlife, politics, sports, and religion; and an analysis of how commercial forces amplify and capitalize on the universal human need for intoxication.
This book is also freely available online as an open access digital edition.
Download the open access ebook here.
Vivid and at times deeply personal, this book offers new insights into a wide variety of intoxicating experiences, from the intimate feeling of connection among concertgoers to the adrenaline-fueled rush of a fight, to the thrill of jumping off a balcony into a swimming pool. Tutenges shows what it means and feels to move beyond the ordinary into altered states in which the transgressive, spectacular, and unexpected take place.
He argues that the primary aim of group intoxication is the religious experience that Émile Durkheim calls collective effervescence, the essence of which is a sense of connecting with other people and being part of a larger whole. This experience is empowering and emboldening and may lead to crime and deviance, but it is at the same time vital to our humanity because it strengthens social bonds and solidarity.
The book fills important gaps in Durkheim’s social theory and contributes to current debates in micro-sociology as well as cultural criminology and cultural sociology. Here, for the first time, readers will discover a detailed account of collective effervescence in contemporary society that includes: an explanation of what collective effervescence is; a description of the conditions that generate collective effervescence; a typology of the varieties of collective effervescence; a discussion of how collective effervescence manifests in the realm of nightlife, politics, sports, and religion; and an analysis of how commercial forces amplify and capitalize on the universal human need for intoxication.
This book is also freely available online as an open access digital edition.
Download the open access ebook here.
Author / Editor information
SÉBASTIEN TUTENGES is an associate professor in the Department of Sociology at Lund University in Sweden. He is the editor-in-chief of the Nordic Journal of Criminology. His publications include articles in journals such as Addiction, British Journal of Criminology, Social Problems, and Tourist Studies.
Reviews
"From sports to religion to party venues, effervescence is as much a blind spot of research as it is a phenomenon fundamental to society’s very make-up. Intoxication introduces us to the party practices of today’s youth in vivid fashion and with a remarkable interpretative sensitivity. Far from being the wastelands of meaning they appear to be, these drunken landscapes are existential theaters for the abandonment of the self to social forces and the experience of other ways of being and feeling. A long-awaited book which could well become a campus classic."
— François Gauthier, author of Religion, Modernity, Globalisation. Nation-State to Market"Tutenges’s study of collective effervescence is commanding, thoughtful, and thought-provoking. Intoxication is a stunning example of ethnographically informed social theory."
— Lois Presser, author of Why We HarmTopics
-
Download PDFOpen Access
Frontmatter
i -
Download PDFOpen Access
Contents
v -
Download PDFOpen Access
1. Introduction
1 -
Download PDFOpen Access
2. Ways to Effervescence
25 -
Download PDFOpen Access
3. Unity
48 -
Download PDFOpen Access
4. Intensity
64 -
Download PDFOpen Access
5. Transgression
79 -
Download PDFOpen Access
6. Symbolization
98 -
Download PDFOpen Access
7. Revitalization
113 -
Download PDFOpen Access
8. Afterword
124 -
Download PDFOpen Access
Acknowledgments
133 -
Download PDFOpen Access
Notes
135 -
Download PDFOpen Access
References
141 -
Download PDFOpen Access
Index
153 -
Download PDFOpen Access
About the Author
159
Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
October 11, 2022
eBook ISBN:
9781978831230
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook ISBN:
9781978831230
Keywords for this book
alchoholism; casual drinking; party scenes; partying; college parties; party colleges; beer; vodka; bartenders; bartending jobs; party culture; nightlife; city nightlife; nightclubs; bar fights; frat parties; frat culture; greek living; drinking; alcoholism; alcohol poisoning; alcohol intake; alcoholics anonymous; alcoholics; collective effervescence; cocktail recipes; cocktail bars near me; barfighting; getting drunk; drunkards; drunk belligerence; clubbing; party tricks; draft beer; six pack; Heineken; Coors Light; Svedka; Fireball; ethnographic perspectives; pot; marijuana
Audience(s) for this book
For a non-specialist adult audience
Creative Commons
BY-NC-ND 4.0
