Pub and community: The views of Birmingham untreated heavy drinkers

Abstract

This paper reports the results of a qualitative analysis of semi-structured interviews with 79 members of the Birmingham Untreated Heavy Drinkers Cohort. The cohort was recruited in 1997 when all participants were drinking 50 or more standard units of alcohol (men) or 35 or more units (women) most weeks. Present interviews were carried out as part of the fourth wave of interviews, held in 2003. The topic was the participants' places of drinking in the community and the functions those places served. The present analysis focused on the relationship between pubs and community. The strongest theme to emerge was that the pub provided for many participants a real sense of community in itself. It did so by enabling participants to meet with like-minded others, in a setting distinct from home or work, where conversing and confiding could take place in a relaxed atmosphere, with a range of other activities and forms of social support available to many. At the same time, participants were discriminating about which pubs they used, and when, and with whom they chose to interact. There was less consensus about whether the pub served a wider function by contributing to a positive sense of community in the local neighbourhood. It is suggested that English pubs, at least in a large conurbation such as the West Midlands, are very varied, sometimes continuing to serve as 'the local' for a community, sometimes being part of a variety of drinking places which between them provide people with a diversity of social niches to meet their increasingly diverse choices and preferences, and sometimes reflecting and even contributing to local community disorganisation.

Understanding drinking among midlife men in the United Kingdom: A systematic review of qualitative studies

“…The 11 publications were published between 2002 and 2014, and represent six unique studies. The studies took place across England and Scotland, with two unique studies conducted in the North East of England ( Brierley-Jones et al, 2014 ; Wilson et al, 2013 ): one unique study in the West of Scotland ( Emslie, Hunt, & Lyons, 2012 ; Emslie, Hunt, & Lyons, 2013 ; Lyons et al, 2014 ); one study in Blackpool ( Foster & Heyman, 2013 ; Foster et al, 2010 ); one in Birmingham ( Orford et al, 2002 ; Orford et al, 2009 ; Rolfe et al, 2006 ); and one in the South of the UK ( Ritchie, 2007 ).…”

“…The remaining publications included both men and women of different ages. One paper included participants aged 50 or over ( Wilson et al, 2013 ); three publications from the same study started with a cohort of participants aged 22–50 and followed them over a 10-year period ( Orford et al, 2002 ; Orford et al, 2009 ; Rolfe et al, 2006 ); another paper included participants aged 21–55 ( Brierley-Jones et al, 2014 ); the remaining three publications included a wide range of ages ( Foster & Heyman, 2013 ; Foster et al, 2010 ; Ritchie, 2007 ). Quotes from the papers illustrating their relevance to middle-aged men are presented in S4 .…”

“…One unique study stated that participants were socioeconomically diverse ( Emslie et al, 2012 ; Emslie et al, 2013 ; Lyons et al, 2014 ), and another unique study had sought optimum distribution by socioeconomic status and employment status ( Orford et al, 2002 ; Orford et al, 2009 ; Rolfe et al, 2006 ). One study recruited only professional, managerial or clerical employees ( Brierley-Jones et al, 2014 ).…”

Alive after death: An exploratory cultural artifact analysis of the Merry Cemetery of Săpânţa

“…Heavy drinking is another negative attribute mentioned in some of the epitaphs: One more thing I loved very much/To sit at a table in a bar/Next to someone else's wife, and Let me tell you another good one/I enjoyed drinking plum brandy/With my friends at the pub/I often forgot what I came in for . Smokers and heavy drinkers have traditionally been stigmatized within communities and these health threatening behaviours were often related to morality (Farrimond & Joffe, 2006; Orford, Rolfe, Dalton, Painter & Webb, 2009). In the epitaphs these ‘bad habits’ are often mentioned as a violation of moral standards and a subject of social disapproval.…”

The English public house as a 21st century socially responsible community institution

“…For example, Wellman (1979Wellman ( ,p.1204 shows how one view bemoans the idea of 'community lost', asserting that industrialisation and urbanisation 6 weaken the sense of solidarity and community among people. Orford et al's (2009) study of pubs in Birmingham (United Kingdom), drawing from this concept, also found that some pub users felt that a decline in pubs was contributing to just such a loss of community. Although focussing on community in urban settings, their analysis is also relevant to village life where community is often seen as threatened by such phenomena as closing pubs or growing numbers of rural second homes, given the common assumption that 'users of second homes lack any connection with "host" communities' (Gallent, 2007,p.99).…”