Drinking Dilemmas

Thomas Thurnell-Read is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology in the School of Humanities at Coventry University. Through his research and teaching, he uses contemporary leisure and consumption practices, particularly those relating to drinking and drunkenness, to explore a range of sociological issues relating to sociality, identity and diversity. His research on British stag party tourism in Poland has been published in a range of international journals and focuses on the social construction of masculinity through transgressive drinking practices. He is the editor (with Dr Mark Casey, Newcastle University) of Men, Masculinities, Travel and Tourism (2014, Palgrave Macmillan). He is a founder member of the BSA Alcohol Study Group and has been Co-Convenor of the group since July 2012.

• 1. Introduction. Drinking Dilemmas?: Space, culture and identity, Thomas Thurnell-Read 2. Revisiting Urban Nightscapes: An Academic and personal journey through twenty years of nightlife research, Robert Hollands 3. The Symbolic Value of Alcohol: The importance of alcohol consumption, drinking practices and drinking spaces in classed and gendered identity construction, Kimberley Ross-Houle, Amanda Atkinson and Harry Sumnall 4. Beer and Belonging: Real ale consumption, place and identity , Thomas Thurnell-Read 5. Illegal Drinking Venues in a South African Township: Sites of struggle in the informal city, Andrew Charman 6. ‘Eat, Drink and Be Merry for Tomorrow We Die’: Alcohol practices in Mar Mikhael, Beirut, Marie Bonte 7. ‘A Force to be Reckoned With’: The Role and Influence of Alcohol in Leeds’ Extreme Metal Scene, Gabby Riches 8. ‘Never, Ever Go Down the Bigg Market’: Classed and spatialised processes of othering on the ‘girls’ night out’, Emily Nicholls 9. Young People’s Alcohol-Related Urban Im/mobilities, Samantha Wilkinson 10. Parenting Style and Gender Effects on Alcohol Consumptions among University Students in France, Ludovic Gaussot, Loïc Le Minor and Nicolas Palierne 11. Growing up, Going out: Cultural and aesthetic attachment to the night time economy, Oliver Smith 12. ‘There Are Limits on What You Can Do’: Biographical reconstruction by those bereaved by alcohol-related deaths, Christine Valentine, Lorna Templeton and Richard Velleman 13. Drinking Dilemmas: Making a difference?, Mark Jayne and Gill Valentine

"Drinking Dilemmas" is an important and timely collection of papers on the study of alcohol, drinking and drunkenness. Thurnell-Read has brought together a range of distinguished authors to explore how drinking practices and individual identities are both spatially and culturally defined. This book will prove to be a useful resource for both scholars and students at all levels who wish to understand the multiple ways in which individual identities, alcohol consumption, drinking practices and intoxicated behaviors are interwoven. Geoffrey Hunt, Professor, Centre for Alcohol and Drug Research, Aarhus University, Denmark This timely collection of recent research on the role of alcohol in cultural life makes an important contribution to contemporary debates about the ‘demon drink’. Contributors challenge the overwhelmingly negative connotations of much public health and policy discourse, examining the diverse symbolic meanings of drinking in a range of social, political and economic contexts. The book has a distinctive focus on place and space, crossing academic disciplines from sociology and geography to criminology, and crossing the globe from the Bigg Market in Newcastle to Mar Mikhael in Beirut, via France, South Africa and the extreme metal music scene in Leeds, UK. Professor Christine Griffin, University of Bath, UK