Material Goods

On the roof of Miyashita Park, groups of youths socialize, drink with their friends, take pictures of their outfits and take-out food, and make TikToks with their friends. The consumption of material goods in Miyashita Park is linked to sociality and identity development among youths and can be classified into five categories: alcohol, cigarettes, food, phones, and fashion. The first two categories (alcohol and cigarettes) are used to show ‘coolness’ among youth; the latter three (food, phones, and fashion) show status. Items in all categories are used for both sociality and identity development and signal key conditions and scenarios for youth behavior in Miyashita Park. By taking part in these consumption practices, an in-group/out-group social dynamic is created, which reveals social status and differences among youth groups. These practices also contribute to identity formation and affect social interactions among young people. 

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Youth coolness is best defined by the youths themselves. Coolness among youth refers to peer approval, attention, or individuality. Coolness is largely linked with academic dis-achievement, disruptive behavior, and aggressive behavior, which results in peer approval/attention. In a study on youth coolness, Sarah Kiefer found ‘relations of coolness and social goals with subsequent aggression and engagement, and goals and gender moderated associations. Cool youth who endorsed intimacy goals had higher overt aggression; cool boys with low popularity goals or high dominance goals had higher overt aggression’ (2016). Behavior similar to Kiefer’s findings can be seen in the youth of Miyashita Park. They challenge authority by engaging in transgressive acts, such as underage smoking and underage drinking. At the macro-level of Japanese society, these young people are at the bottom of the social pyramid because of their age. On the micro-level of Miyashita Park, they are younger than the security guards who are tasked with enforcing the rules, so the consumption of alcohol and tobacco is cool because it challenges authority vertically, at all levels. Youth within the cool in-group take over an entire section of the grass as their personal drinking and smoking spot. They are not sitting politely or timidly on a bench. They designate space as their own. This is an entitled use of space, and shows they are confident and not timid; they are cool. → Read more about the use of space in Alex’s section on The Consumption of Space. 

The consumption categories of food, phones, and fashion are indicators of status and show that a youth belongs in the social scene of Miyashita Park. Consumption of material goods is used to ‘flex’ on other youth. In this context, the slang word flex means to boast, brag, or show off. Nancy Deutsch says ‘consumption in marking social status is exaggerated in youth culture.’ She cites Murray Milner who explains that ‘status power is the only power held by adolescents, who have neither economic nor political power…This increases the importance of material goods, encouraging youth to consume.’ (2010). In Miyashita Park, we see this exaggerated form of consumption when youths purchase well-known food items, take pictures of those items with their phones, and post them on social media. The marking of social status is doubled during this consumption of food: first, youths are showing their status to other young people in the Park; second, they post photos to social media platforms, which signifies their status within the in-group at Miyashita Park. Without power in the broader society, youths flex material consumption in this way for identity development and increased social status.

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The young people also use their phones to take selfies and photos of their friends and post them on social media. The rooftop park and chainlink fence are now easily identifiable landmarks at Miyashita Park, and youths gain or affirm social status by posing in these areas. → Read more about identifiable landmarks in Alex’s section. For these photos, fashion is important, as young people use clothing styles to reinforce their personal identity and their group identity.  These identities might be aspirational and reflect a desire to change their status, and the youths might be making fashion choices based on how they want to be perceived. Erving Goffman explains that social life is a stage where people always show off their best selves (2015). The Park functions as a dramaturgical stage for youth who are trying to maintain or improve their status, stay or be included within the in-group, and have a sense of belonging somewhere in the Miyashita Park social scene. → Learn more about the functions of Miyashita Park in Nagiko’s section. This dramaturgical stage is especially relevant for youth, who are exploring various identities and social groups, often unsure of their status, while still actively constructing their self-identity. In Youth, Place, and Theories of Belonging, Sadia Habib explains that ‘As belonging is tied closely both to everyday experiences and common collective experiences…it remains racialized, classed, gendered and linked to place…(and is) realized in reference to material goods and deeply inflected by both physical and online spaces’ (2020). According to Habib’s theory, Miyashita youth maintain, or change, their perceived social status through sartorial displays and the consumption of material goods, and these status markers are flexed on-location at the Park and online through social media.