The power of prime: The role of a fad in children’s social positioning within school-age educare

This ethnographic study investigates how a fad enters two Swedish school-age educare centers and how the children use it in negotiating social positions. The sports drink Prime is not mainly consumed for its content; instead, the bottles are valued as pop-cultural objects. By regarding the fad as discursive, the results show how children utilize their knowledge of the fad to influence their position in the institutions. The study contributes to knowledge on how fads enter and are translated into children’s social contexts, as well as the effects they have on children’s social lives in educational institutions.