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Article Excerpt
Alcohol is on the ascendency as the drug of choice for young people in Australia and the UK. There is evidence that the "decade of dance" is over, party drugs such as ecstasy are declining and young people are turning back to determined drunkenness as their preferred mode of intoxication (Measham, 2004). In the state of Victoria in Australia the health statistics confirm that alcohol is re-emerging as a more significant drug problem than heroin or cannabis. Alcohol is the cause of more hospital admissions and more people seeking treatment than other drugs (McDonald, 2005).
In Australia, young people in their 20s drink more heavily than any other age group and those aged 18 to 25 are at the highest risk of alcohol related injury and harm (National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), 2001). The Australian National Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing found that 60 percent of people with diagnosed alcohol dependence were in the 18 to 34 year-old age group (Proudfoot, 2002). Alcohol consumption is an inherently social and situational practice but in-depth research on drinking contexts in the last 20 years is relatively sparse. It is crucial for developing successful health interventions that we have a full understanding of how, where and in what circumstances young people drink to excess. We need to go beyond broad quantitative outlines of drinking patterns and gather in-depth local qualitative information about contemporary drinking landscapes. This present study aims to explore the connections between social class, gender in contemporary public drinking contexts in Melbourne (Lindsay, 2005).
Drinking in contemporary pub and club settings
Licensed premises are key alcohol consumption venues and are often integral parts of community life. Research on public drinking environments suggests that bars and taverns are strongly associated with harmful drinking (Casswell, Zhang, & Wyllie, 1993; Curran, Harford, & Methen, 1996; Single & Wortley, 1993). This is particularly the case with venues that become crowded and are frequented by large groups of people (Stockwell, Lang, & Rydon, 1993). There seems to be a strong relationship between drinking settings and consumption patterns. In Australia there is a distinct difference between pub drinking, club drinking, and restaurant drinking styles (De Crespigny, Vincent & Ask, 1999) and not surprisingly young people who attend pubs and clubs more often tend to consume more alcohol than their peers (Banwell, O'Brien, Hamilton, & Attewell, 1999; Lindsay, 2003).
However, it is important to recognize that pubs and clubs have changed substantially in the last two decades and drinking practices are being reconfigured. Urban nightlife venues are now highly segmented and are marketed toward a diverse range of rapidly changing "taste-cultures" (Thornton, 1995). The branding and theming of licensed leisure facilities on the part of large corporate players has increased dramatically; there is a proliferation of Irish, wild west, and sports themed bars (Chatterton & Hollands, 2003; Measham, 2004). Branding of alcohol products has also intensified over the last decade and brightly colored ready-to-drink products, or "alcopops", are increasingly appealing to young people (Brain, 2000). Dance music and DJs in nightclubs have gained popularity as venues hosting live bands have struggled to retain audiences. There has been a change from pub to club-style drinking venues and hybrid venues (e.g. half-club/half-pub or half-cafe/half-bar) are increasingly common (Chatterton & Hollands, 2001). Furthermore, contemporary nightlife has become feminised as women enter drinking venues in larger numbers than ever before. As Brain argues, drinking is now less about male working class integration and more "of a consumerist search for time out" (Brain, 2000:10).
It is likely that the traditional uses of pubs and clubs described by Cavan in the 1960s remain--pubs and clubs continue to be used for "convenience", as "nightspots" providing entertainment, as a "marketplace" (particularly a sexual marketplace), and as an expression of "home territory" by special groups, especially those identifying with specific ethnic, sexual, or musical subcultures (Cavan, 1966; Purcell & Graham, 2005). However, the clientele, the alcohol products and the physical settings are likely to be configured differently in the contemporary pubs and clubs where young people socialize than they were 20 years ago.
Drinking and gender
Research has established that young men are more likely to consume excessive amounts of alcohol than young women. However, there is also evidence that this gender gap is closing and nightlife is being feminised (Chatterton & Hollands, 2001; Greenfield & Room, 1997; Taft, 2001). Contemporary young women have greater access to nighttime socializing than previous generations.
The connection between femininity and alcohol consumption is an under researched area. Research has found young single women without children and domestic responsibilities drink more heavily than others (Jonas, Dobson & Brown, 2000). It is likely that these women frequent public alcohol consumption venues. In detailed research on an inner-city Melbourne suburb, unmarried women who drank beer at licensed premises were drinking more heavily than other women (Banwell, O'Brien, Hamilton & Attewell, 1999). It has been well documented that women are more vulnerable than men to the physical harms of alcohol and that women who drink excessively are likely to be damaged more quickly (Broom, 1995). Moreover, women are likely to suffer as partners of men who are taking risks in their social lives. In addition, women are at an increased risk of male aggression or sexual assault when they are intoxicated in public places (Ferris, 1997; Parks, Miller, Collins, & Zetes-Zanatta, 1998). Sexual stereotypes remain strong so women who are drunk or dressed in a "sexually provocative manner" are viewed by some men as promiscuous and sexually "easy" (Parks & Scheidt, 2000). It is therefore not surprising that negotiating safety and managing risks in public drinking contexts are high priorities for young female drinkers (Ferris, 1997; De Crespigny, Vincent & Ask, 1999).
Historically, masculinity is strongly linked with alcohol consumption (Sargent, 1979). Men continue to drink more than women and they suffer more alcohol related harms (National Alcohol Strategy, 2001). Research on young people in the nonprofessional workforce found that many of the young men subscribed to a risk-taking version of masculinity that included excessive alcohol consumption. Half of the young men in the study were drinking at harmful levels every time they drank (Lindsay, 2001). Campbell conducted an ethnographic study of men drinking in rural pubs in New Zealand and found that pub drinking was a performance of a dominant form of masculinity and contributed to the creation and maintenance of male power in the local community (Campbell, 2000). Gender relations have an impact on drinking style and some research suggests that when men dominate drinking groups alcohol consumption rises (Sykes, Rowley & Schafer, 1993).
In this article gender is understood to involve both material and cultural relations. Material relations include paid and unpaid labor and access to economic resources, and cultural relations include discursive practices around masculinity and femininity. Gender is understood as dynamic, that is, always being constituted in everyday life and being created and recreated on an ongoing basis (Bradley, 1996; Connell, 2002). Measham's argument that drug use and associated music and style cultures are ways of "accomplishing a gendered identity" was influential in conceptualizing drinking as a performance or way of "doing gender" in this paper (Measham, 2002).
Drinking and class
Research suggests that drinking is differentiated by socioeconomic status and class. In general terms, poverty is linked to alcohol abuse, illegal drug use, and smoking (Jarvis & Wardle, 1999). Lower socio-economic communities suffer disproportionately from alcohol related harms (Sargent, 1979; Taft, 2001). There has been little recent research on the connections between social class and alcohol in Australia. Research on young nonprofessional workers in Melbourne found that alcohol consumption was a major health issue. More young workers drank and more drank excessively than their counterparts in the general population (Lindsay, 2001).
Social class is somewhat fluid and not always easily observable. In recent debates about class there has been a shift in emphasis from relations of "production" or the economic, to relations of "consumption" that focuses more on cultural locations and processes (Crompton, 1998). According to writers such as Pakulski and Waters, consumption is a new controlling and directing force in people's lives (Pakulski & Waters, 1996).
In this article a dynamic conceptualization of class is utilized. Class involves two major interconnected sets of relations--material and cultural. Material relations include production, labor and economic resources while cultural relations include consumption, cultural capital, and discursive practices. Following writers such as Barrett and Bradley, I wish to bring together insights from both traditional and postmodern debates about social inequality (Barret, 1992; Bradley, 1996). Class is a dynamic that is constantly being made and remade. Social classes are much more difficult to identify than previously and class relations are more complex, but systematic forms of social inequality continue to operate around occupations, levels of education, and income.
In Australia recent debates on social divisions identify tertiary education as a key mechanism dividing the population. It can be argued that occupation and income are less influential dividers than previously and tertiary education is now a proxy for class. The inner suburbs of Melbourne have a high proportion of people with tertiary educations (35% compared with a national average of 18%), high access to information and tend to be...
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