The research investigates speeding with cars and racing in the streets by groups of young car enthusiasts called boy racers. The boy racers who where studied represent an extreme end of risk takers within the spectrum of car enthusiasts who use the streets and highways for weekend entertainment. These lads call themselves speeders, boy racers and bloody good drivers. They are technology-oriented, speed-oriented, and loyal to their groups. Group solidarity may lead to accidents in situations, where the romantics of destruction include drinking in cars and driving at high speeds in groups with an ethos of going all the way to the end.

The research method was qualitative ethnography.

The Finnish study:
Heli Vaaranen
KAAHARIPOIKIA JA RAPPIOROMANTIIKKAA
Tutkimus erään kaahailukulttuurin elämänilosta ja tuhoisuudesta
Yhdyskuntasuunnittelun tutkimus- ja koulutuskeskuksen julkaisuja A 30
Espoo 2004
Helsingin yliopisto, Valtiotieteellinen tiedekunta, Sosiologian laitos

This Finnish research report includes also an English article:
Vaaranen, Heli & Wieloch, Neil (2002)
Car Crashes and Dead End Careers: Leisure Pursuits of the Finnish Subculture of the kortteliralli Street Racing.
Young. Nordic Journal of Youth Research 2002 (1):10, 42–58.

The boys use their speeding culture for identity construction. While the boys’ choices and actions do not fit the mainstream’s expectations, subcultural life gives opportunities for self fulfilment and acceptance in a room of his own; a space where his norms prevail.

In speeding and racing in the streets, i.e., in claiming their fame, the lads also build an identity for their group. An audiovisual style of the cars is combined with play and games in traffic, thus attracting attention.

Besides the expressiveness of the speeding culture, the researcher also examined the every day lives of the boy racers. How are they situated socially, emotionally and economically in this society? Although she was describing a specific, like-minded group of speed-enthusiasts, she wishes to contribute to the understanding of youth subcultures in an advanced, Nordic welfare state.

In the end the researcher concludes that speeding and racing in the streets are not individual acts performed by the young driver. Instead, they are group activities, often subjected to alcohol use in cars. Accordingly, speeding is motivated by an ethos of romantics of destruction that condemns morality. Within these groupings, social positions as popular and recognized are most sought after. Youths want to be recognized in groups of their own when recognition on the outside is scarce. Within this subculture, both female and male attention was directed towards these speeding, risk taking boy racers.

Department of Sociology
P.O. Box 18
FIN-00014 University of Helsinki
Finland
Phone: +358 9 191 23 898
heli.vaaranen@helsinki.fi
http://www.valt.helsinki.fi/staff/hvaarane
Heli Vaaranen (Ph.D., researcher)

01/06/2004

Heli Vaaranen

research

Urban Policy > Transport and infrastructure > Roads and road transport

Road safety