Respectable drinkers, sensible drinking, serious leisure: single-malt whisky enthusiasts and the moral panic of irresponsible Others

Abstract

In the public discourse of policy-makers and journalists, drinkers of (excessive) alcohol are portrayed either as irresponsible, immoral deviants, or as gullible victims.In other words, the public discourse engenders a moral panic about alcohol-crazed individuals, who become what Cohen (1972) identifies as folk devils: the Other, abusing alcohol to create anti-social disorder. However, alcohol-drinking was, is and continues to be an everyday practice in the leisure lives of the majority of people in the United Kingdom. In this research paper, I want to explore the serious leisure of whisky tasting to provide a counter to the myth of the alcohol-drinker as folk devil, to try to construct a new public discourse of sensible drinking. I will draw on ethnographic work at whisky tastings alongside interviews and analysis of on-line discourses. I show that participation in whisky-tasting events creates a safe space in which excessive amounts of alcohol are consumed, yet the norms of the particular habitus ensure that such drinking never leads to misbehaviour. In doing so, however, I will note that the respectability of whisky drinking is associated with its masculine, white, privileged habitus -the folk devil becomes someone else, someone Other.

Bottling Scotland, drinking Scotland:Scotland's future, the whisky industry and leisure, tourism and public-health policy

“…What we can see in the analysis of the SWA's website is a careful positioning of whisky and whisky tourism as being something that represents a supposedly authentic Scottish tradition. That is, it is sold as being something Habermasianly communicative, while being essentially a product of the instrumental rationality of modern capitalism (Habermas, 1984(Habermas, , 1987Spracklen, 2011Spracklen, , 2013. Scottish policy-makers allow the industry to sell this idea because the industry is important to the economic strength of Scotland -so the white paper on independence provides lots of rhetoric about tackling alcohol misuse while carefully excluding whisky consumers and the whisky industry from suffering its policy-making.…”

“…The assumption is that these whisky drinkers, like wine drinkers, are from classes that are allowed to get drunk without policy-makers getting worried. The language of the moral panic is reserved for the poor, the irresponsible others (Spracklen, 2013), not those consumers who keep the whisky industry in full production.…”

“…Spracklen (2011) is an ethnography and discourse analysis of Scottish whisky tourism and whisky-related texts (websites and books about single-malt whisky). Spracklen (2013) is an ethnography of whisky-tasting events and qualitative research with people who attend such events and collect whisky. My knowledge of Scottish whisky tourism and its related whisky industry in this paper stems from these previous projects and my own insider status as whisky drinker and whisky tourist.…”

“…The logic of Habermasian instrumentality is clearly at work in Scotland, and the industry is an industry, a capitalist system that creates surplus products that need to be converted into cash and profits. The whisky industry needs people to consume whisky and to engage in whisky-related consumption practices, whether it is buying blended whisky to drink at home or in a bar, spending money to go around distilleries on tours or purchasing collectible releases (Spracklen, 2011(Spracklen, , 2013. The industry needs drinkers to choose blended or single-malt whiskies over beer, or wine, or vodka (or coffee or tea).…”

“…Single-malt whisky is the product of over one hundred distilleries across Scotland, and is the subject of a number of claims about its status as an 'authentic' Scottish drink (Gold & Gold, 1995;Martin & Haugh, 1999;McBoyle & McBoyle, 2008;Spracklen, 2009Spracklen, , 2011Spracklen, , 2013. Spracklen (2011) has sketched out the processes and policy decisions that lead to the whisky industry re-branding their drinks as authentic and their factory-distilleries as destinations with brand-new visitor centres.…”