Social representation of wine among young adults

Abstract

Résumé : Depuis plusieurs années en France, la consommation journalière de vin diminue au profit d'une consommation occasionnelle, en particulier chez les jeunes. Malgré ce délaissement de la consommation, quelles images, quelles représentations les jeunes se font-ils de cette boisson traditionnelle, produit français par excellence ? L'étude des représentations sociales du vin et des pratiques consommatoires devrait nous permettre, dans l'avenir, de mieux comprendre les conduites de ces nouvelles générations. Nous avons ainsi étudié les représentations sociales d'une population de jeunes (155) en fonction de leur région d'origine (viticole versus non-viticole) et de leur rapport au savoir (jeunes étudiants sans savoir spéci-fique versus étudiants à la Faculté d'oenologie). Les résultats de ce travail mettent à jour l'existence d'un paradoxe. S'il existe bien une représentation sociale largement consensuelle et valorisée pour tous les jeunes de notre échantillon, représentations associées aux plaisirs de la table, à la convivialité et du désir de transmettre ; les habitudes de consommation n'en restent pas moins occasionnelles et dépendantes des repas festifs.Summary : For many years in France, the daily consumption of wine has been decreasing for a more occasional consumption, particularly among the young. Their spirits' consumption remains an «Anglo-Saxon behaviour», i.e., a weekly consumption of beer and high-alcohol drinks, that often follows with drunkenness. To better understand the future behaviour of young generations, this innovative study proposes to look jointly at young consumers' behaviour and social representations. The wine social representation studys' purpose is to point out the existence of a common way of thinking, socially elaborated and shared by a group of people. This study will also attempt to explain partly, the nature of social and affective links as well as social consumption practices. To that end, we assume that there is a social representation of wine which varies according to a younger generations' region of origin (vineyard versus no vineyard areas), to their position towards wine (amateur fond of wine versus experts who are future professionals) and to their consumption practices. After having conducted a preliminary survey for this research, we have built a questionnaire measuring wine consumption and the social representation. Voluntary students have been chosen (58 from Bordeaux, 52 from Limoges and 45 oenology students). The first statistical results show wine consumption habits vary according to the group. People from Bordeaux (amateur / vineyard) prefer consuming wine at their parents homes. Oenology students (future experts) prefer consuming wine at home with their friends. People from Limoges (amateur / no-vineyard) don't have specific habits. As for the other spirits we are noticed common practices : all students in the survey prefer consuming these spirits outside (bar, restaurant) with friends. This last result confirms numerous former studies as to alcohol consumption ...

Social Mobility and the Social Representation of Sparkling Wine in Brazil and France

“…Wine, in general, is a cultural and social product [2]. Other authors have also showed the different rep-Social Mobility and the Social Representation of Sparkling Wine in Brazil and France resentations associated with it [77,75,5,6,78,53,36,93]. In our study, according to our H3 hypothesis, the most important difference between still wine and sparkling wine is the presence of bubbles, foam, aesthetics, and entertainment.…”