Tobacco smoking has always been a part of our culture. Every culture in recorded history has a history of tobacco smoking, either as a medicine, pleasure, smoking as a part of a ritual, or as a part of a popular culture. Cigarette smoking is most common among people with low level of education and among people with low income. In my bachelor’s thesis, I try to find out the connection between the cultural capital and smoking among young people. Especially, I am interested in how smoking among young people is related to various demographic data. I try to find out how subcultural capital is expressed among young people and how subcultural capital is linked to socio-structural factors (choice of school). I also research what role do the concept ˝cool˝ and lifestyle play among young smokers and how young people interpret social groups, to which they belong.
The bachelor’s thesis is divided into two parts, in which I explain, within the theoretical framework and with the help of various authors, smoking as a cultural practice, the meaning of the cigarette industry, and the concept of cultural and subcultural capital. In the empirical part, I used the method of semi-structured interview and conducted interviews with 6 adolescents from different secondary schools, based on which I found that the practices and smoking patterns among all the interviewees are very similar. I found out that the concepts of lifestyle and ˝cool˝ are playing a very important role among young smokers. The expression of subcultural capital is also closely related to socio-structural factors.
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