Qualitative Study of Typology of Lifestyles: Study of the Youth in Mahabad City

Lifestyle is one of the modern concepts to which particular attention has been paid in the last century, especially after World War II. This term is the product of the modern world in which hobby choices and behaviors are considered to be based on individual choices and behaviors due to the weakening of structural variables such as social class. Young people could be considered important to study and analyze their lifestyles. They determine their social identity using a variety of factors (such as " a lot of culture consumption, much production of culture and reproduction of cultural activities" (Wyn and White, 1997: 86). On this basis, "lifestyle, consumer behaviors and choices and so on are of very high importance in life, and are considered as the basis and foundation of social identity formation" (Bourdieu, 1984 Lash & Urry, 1987 Featherstone, 1991 Giddens, 2008). Therefore, it is greatly important to study the status of social identity of youth and how to shape and redefine it in the current situation. On this basis, the present study aims at reviewing various theories about lifestyle, providing a conceptual framework, and extracting core concepts of lifestyle based on the opinions of scholars and empirical research related to the subject, and finally suggesting a typology of current lifestyles among youth in the city of Mahabad. The method used in this research is qualitative. Qualitative method is appropriate to examine the issues in which in-depth understanding of complexities, details and context of the phenomenon under study are emphasized. Lifestyle is also a complex, multi-dimensional and diverse phenomenon, which means that it has many obscure and unknown aspects, and there are many components and elements consisting of the lifestyle, which may vary among individuals. Among the various methods that can be used for qualitative research, we picked grounded theory method, which means discovery of theory from the data that are produced as a posterior on the basis of social research. Thus, unlike methods that focus primarily on the evidence of hypotheses and theoretical propositions, this approach emphasizes the generation of theory (Dunican, 2006). Field data were collected using semi-structured interviews and participant observation techniques. 25 young boys in the range of 18 to 29 years old were finally included in the sample. The sampling method is a theoretical sampling, in which the sample selection process depends on the extent to which the sample to be selected can clarify a theory and idea that it is being developed and formed, and on the extent to which it helps the moving flow. In theoretical sampling, the sample size is determined with the theoretical saturation criterion that is, whenever researcher finds that more interviews do not provide new information and insights, or data are being repeated, or nothing new is discovered, he does not continue the process of sampling and collecting data (Mohammad Pur, 2010). In this study, to obtain more complete and better results, we have considered the concept of sampling with maximum changes, due to the assumption of diverse lifestyles. Sampling with maximum changes, environments, activities, events, and informed people are deliberately chosen so that they make different and more diverse positions available to the researcher (Wimmer & Dominick, 2008). Accordingly, in-depth interviews were conducted with 28 young boys in the city of Mahabad. After the initial survey, three interviews were removed, and finally, 25 people formed our sample size.Discussion of Results and Considering the new situation and changes in the global and local levels, no doubt a phenomenon such as lifestyle has also changed, and has taken different forms and different aspects, influenced by modern processes. Meanwhile, modern processes and phenomena of technological progress and communication technologies have strongly affected the lives of young people, leading them to accept patterns from generalistic objectives. However, an approach to tackle and to some extent combat with those which make global events also exists, which is proportionally less powerful. The identity of young people in today's changing and fluid world is uncertain and greatly changeable, and the youth are often confused, with discord of opinions and actions. They both pay attention to the modern phenomena and the local identifiers. They have shaped their identity with the selection of their lifestyle elements, and give it direction in order to make them and their lifestyles different from others with different lifestyles. The distinction between these individuals is obvious, and the difference can be found in every element of their lives. Thus, lifestyle gives both identity and distinction. In addition, these people accept separate styles with presence in different types of social status. In sum, we can conclude that along with the increasing importance of lifestyle in the recent period, this problem was apparent in the youth of our study, and their lifestyle typically leads life and determines identity. The variety of lifestyles in the present era can be found in this study, and there are six lifestyles (pre-modern, modern, scientific, sports-oriented, joyful and global-local) that prove this claim. As the most active population of society, the youth are not passive, and they value their agency. They try to shape their own lifestyles, and have access to a certain lifestyle according to the social status and influence of the prevailing global trends. Choosing any lifestyle forms patterns, norms, actions, thoughts, and generally an identity in a person, and distinguishes him/her from other people who choose different lifestyles. The modern world and its identifiers and changes, the increasing cultural capital in families, plenty of access to new elements and facilities, and special attention to the youth in this process all have enormous and undeniable influences in shaping lifestyles and consequently identities that fit within them.