Managing anti-consumption in an excessive drinking culture

Abstract

A major contemporary challenge facing governments and health professionals is that of promoting sustainable and healthy approaches to alcohol consumption in a context where excessive alcohol consumption is the dominant trend [Plant M., Plant M., Binge Britain: the need for courage. Alcoholis 2006; 25, 3: 1.]. This article reports the results of a qualitative study examining the experiences of Higher Education students in the United Kingdom who are identifiable as anti-consumers because of their opposition to the alcohol norms that predominate. The article focuses on how these students deal with the challenges and consequences that can arise from resisting the prevailing norms and practices. This article demonstrates that existing frameworks and categorizations in the contexts of anti-consumption, product and brand avoidance and coping are capable of providing useful theoretical tools for the examination of anti-consumption within the social marketing context. The article identifies some of the implicit tensions of being an anti-consumer in an environment of excessive consumption and provides examples of how consumers seek to manage these tensions. The use of the above theoretical perspectives can usefully inform policy that aims to promote sensible drinking among young people and students in particular.

Being a non-drinking student: An interpretative phenomenological analysis

“…This said, the socially demanding aspects of being a non-drinker illustrated here and elsewhere (Piacentini & Banister, 2009;Seaman & Ikegwuonu, 2010) suggest that the availability and dependability of such friendships might be particularly important or pertinent to individuals who must consistently defend the counter-normative position which they occupy through not drinking alcohol. In this way, the status of 'not drinking' seemed to provide a benchmark for our participants enabling (or forcing) them to assess the viability of particular social networks or individual friendships.…”

“…For example, infrequent drinkers are included alongside nondrinkers by some authors (Nairn et al, 2006), while others integrate light and non-drinkers within the category 'anti-consumers' -orientating their enquiry towards individuals understood to operate outside of student norms more generally (Piacentini & Banister, 2009). …”

“…Many studies highlight the significant influence of social norms, peer pressure and peer conformity on drinking behaviour among young people and students (e.g., Brown, Clasen, & Eicher, 1986;Nash, McQueen, & Bray, 2005;Santor, Messervey, & Kusumakar, 2000). However, fewer studies have examined the experiences of those who do not drink alcohol in social contexts where heavy drinking may be normative (Nairn, Higgins, Thompson, Anderson, & Fu, 2006;Piacentini & Banister, 2009;Piacentini, Chatzidakis, & Banister, 2012). Greater understanding of non-drinkers' experiences in university social contexts might be suggestive of new ways to challenge normative pressure to drink alcohol among students.…”

“…Drawing on interviews with nine non-drinkers, Piacentini and Banister (2009) reported significant tensions in the successful social management of 'anti-consumption' and discussed the usefulness of different coping strategies such as challenging stereotypes of non-drinkers. These authors also described 'counter-neutralisation techniques' used by non-drinkers to protect themselves from peer intolerance of counter-normative student lifestyles: for example, by acknowledging dangers of heavy drinking or by derogating drunken behaviour (Piacentini et al, 2012).…”

Use of mixed methods designs in substance research: a methodological necessity in Nigeria

“…Again, it would have aided Chikere and colleague to discover why 52.1% of those sampled declared that they will not quit episodic drinking despite being aware of the consequences of harmful consumption. This is because MacNeela and Bredin's (2011) study in Ireland, Beccaria & Sande's (2003) study of Norway and Italy and others from Denmark that utilised qualitative methods reported similar findings, and this has been attributed to many factors, one such being the growing culture of intoxication among young people (Piacentini and Banister 2009) who see drunkenness as a resource as well as social capital (Demant and Järvinen 2010). Denscombe (2008) argued that ''researchers use mixed methods to improve the accuracy of their data, whereas others use it to produce a more complete picture by combining information from complementary kinds of data sources'' (p.272).…”