Young people and alcohol:

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Young people and alcohol
Cultural change is possible
JOSEPH BORLAGDAN, Phd NCETA, Flinders
University 7th August 2009
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DEFINING CULTURE

• drinking culture
• binge drinking culture
• booze culture
• Australian drinking culture

culture of intoxication
change on drinking
culture
meaning making processes
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RESEARCHMETHODS

• 1. Observations (n13)

2. Focus Groups (n20) 3.Interviews
(n90)

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Research team
Huw Walmsley-Evans
Anje Scarfe
Prof Ann M Roche
Dr Petra Bywood
Bel Lunnay
Dr Toby Freeman
Angella Duvnjak
Me in shorts
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Alcohol social activity, peer pressure,
normalised
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COMPLEX SOCIALITYOF DRINKING
?
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DRINKING INCLUSION

• Drink in sync
• drink with the group
• same level as everyone else
• Demonstrate commitment to the party

?
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COMMITMENTTO THE PARTY

• Demonstrating commitment
• Having fun, dancing, socialising, group cohesion
• Taking risks
• ? risky alcohol consumption (rapid intoxication,
  shots, energy drinks)

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EXCLUSION

• Drink less than the rest of the group
• Drink more than the rest of the group
• Fail to demonstrate commitment to the party
• boring, annoying, not participatory, bring the
  mood down

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Polarising imperatives
Restraint

• Abandon

exclusion
exclusion
Ideal space of intoxication
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Drinking but not achieving inclusion
FG 12, Int So what's the difference between
'pissed' and 'paro'? Female 1 Pissed you can
have fun with and paro you can Female 2 You
can't. Female 1 You're fked. Like youve
just gotta lay down or something, something like
that.
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Not Drinking and Exclusion
Not drinking spy
FG 15, Female 1 It was almost as if the people
around you felt worse that you weren't drinking
as if they're more conscious of their behaviour
When there's someone there whos clearly not
drinking, it's like you're a spy or something.
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Dichotomising drinking

• dependence vs abstinence
• problematic vs non-problematic drinking
• Drinker (drink with group) vs Non-drinker
  (Soft, moderate drinker)
• dynamic, fluid, continuum

US

REALITY
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Bounded hedonism
Restraint Constraint

• Abandon
• Liberation

Big Day Out, Feb 08
Good Vibrations, Feb 08
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Social harms of consumption
LONGING, DESIRE

NOVELTY

CONSUMPTION
LACK
OBSOLESCENCE, DISILLUSIONMENT
choice?
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Commodification of youth culture

• Corporations
• Uses youth to sell
• Coopts meanings of youth
• Shapes meanings of youth culture

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Drinking autonomy
Its like a form of escape an escape from who
you are. Like the mask I put on for these guys,
to my family, when Im with my family. I can be
whoever the fk I want to be.

• Autonomous, self-determined identity
• Alcohol as resource for identity transformation

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Restrictive gender norms
FG18, female1 I think I find a lot of my
friends that are girls get really skanky when
theyre drunk Female2 When girls take their
shirts off around guys it gives guys the wrong
idea.

• Promise liberation from gender norms
• Reality sanctioned according traditional,
  restrictive gender norms

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Dangers of current discourse

• Role of males invisible alcohol is agent

FG17, Female 1 They get so trashed that they
just get felt up constantly or taken photos of.
So many times this happens, it's just sad.
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Dangers of current discourse

• Emphasis on females regrettable sexual
  activity
• Sexual abuse/ assault/ rape?

FG12, Female1 People can take advantage of you
when you're really drunk Int What does that mean
- "taken advantage of"? Female 1 It means they
make you do things you don't wanna do but you do
them anyway.
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Re-framing

• Shock tactics, fear, future negative consequences

FG16, Male 1 It was probably one of the
funniest nights of my life He started spewing
up and then he also faceplanted the ground, it
was hilarious.
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CULTURAL CHANGE IS POSSIBLE

• CONTEXT conflicting messages role of alcohol in
  group formation
• CRITICAL
• co-optation leisure lifestyles youth ?
  hypercommodification of alcohol
• CULTURALLY RELEVANT
• Hearing voices of young people

if
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Acknowledgements

• Australian Government Department of Health and
  Ageing
• DrinkWise Australia
• South Australian Department of Health

www.nceta.flinders.edu.au