Drinking in the dark: shedding light on young people’s alcohol consumption experiences

This paper draws on 12 months of ethnographic research to explore the drinking experiences of young people, aged 15-24, living in the suburban case study locations of Chorlton and Wythenshawe, Manchester, UK. This paper moves beyond the contemporary geographical imaginary of alcohol consumption as a...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Wilkinson, Samantha
Format: Article
Published: Taylor & Francis online 2016
Subjects:
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/37091/
_version_ 1848795390273388544
author Wilkinson, Samantha
author_facet Wilkinson, Samantha
author_sort Wilkinson, Samantha
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description This paper draws on 12 months of ethnographic research to explore the drinking experiences of young people, aged 15-24, living in the suburban case study locations of Chorlton and Wythenshawe, Manchester, UK. This paper moves beyond the contemporary geographical imaginary of alcohol consumption as a city-centre issue, to explore suburban indoor and outdoor drinking cultures. Through paying attention to atmospheres of darkness and lightness, I show how drinkscapes are active constituents of young people’s drinking occasions, rather than passive backdrops. More than this, I illustrate how young people transform dark and light drinkscapes, thereby shaping the drinking practices of themselves and others. Through looking at the interplay between the curating of an atmosphere, and the experience of that atmosphere when bodies, and practices are inserted into it, this paper offers a different take on the ‘drinking at home is bad, drinking in public spaces is good’ argument, with original policy suggestions.
first_indexed 2025-11-14T19:31:19Z
format Article
id nottingham-37091
institution University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus
institution_category Local University
last_indexed 2025-11-14T19:31:19Z
publishDate 2016
publisher Taylor & Francis online
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling nottingham-370912020-05-04T18:13:56Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/37091/ Drinking in the dark: shedding light on young people’s alcohol consumption experiences Wilkinson, Samantha This paper draws on 12 months of ethnographic research to explore the drinking experiences of young people, aged 15-24, living in the suburban case study locations of Chorlton and Wythenshawe, Manchester, UK. This paper moves beyond the contemporary geographical imaginary of alcohol consumption as a city-centre issue, to explore suburban indoor and outdoor drinking cultures. Through paying attention to atmospheres of darkness and lightness, I show how drinkscapes are active constituents of young people’s drinking occasions, rather than passive backdrops. More than this, I illustrate how young people transform dark and light drinkscapes, thereby shaping the drinking practices of themselves and others. Through looking at the interplay between the curating of an atmosphere, and the experience of that atmosphere when bodies, and practices are inserted into it, this paper offers a different take on the ‘drinking at home is bad, drinking in public spaces is good’ argument, with original policy suggestions. Taylor & Francis online 2016-09-02 Article PeerReviewed Wilkinson, Samantha (2016) Drinking in the dark: shedding light on young people’s alcohol consumption experiences. Social & Cultural Geography . pp. 1-19. ISSN 1464-9365 alcohol consumption; atmospheres; darkness; lightness; spaces of drinking; young people http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14649365.2016.1227872 doi:10.1080/14649365.2016.1227872 doi:10.1080/14649365.2016.1227872
spellingShingle alcohol consumption; atmospheres; darkness; lightness; spaces of drinking; young people
Wilkinson, Samantha
Drinking in the dark: shedding light on young people’s alcohol consumption experiences
title Drinking in the dark: shedding light on young people’s alcohol consumption experiences
title_full Drinking in the dark: shedding light on young people’s alcohol consumption experiences
title_fullStr Drinking in the dark: shedding light on young people’s alcohol consumption experiences
title_full_unstemmed Drinking in the dark: shedding light on young people’s alcohol consumption experiences
title_short Drinking in the dark: shedding light on young people’s alcohol consumption experiences
title_sort drinking in the dark: shedding light on young people’s alcohol consumption experiences
topic alcohol consumption; atmospheres; darkness; lightness; spaces of drinking; young people
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/37091/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/37091/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/37091/