Temporary sobriety initiatives: emergence, possibilities and constraints

Robert, Julie

doi:10.1080/10304312.2016.1231786

Cited by 7 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…The intervention is made by an external agencya charitywho are explicit in their intention to permanently reduce individuals' alcohol consumption. The target population is drinkers broadly and, as with some other TAIs (see Robert, 2016b), the only group specifically advised not to participate are those who may be dependent or addicted to alcohol (Alcohol Concern, 2018). In these respects, the objectives and targets of Dry January mirror those of wider alcohol policy.…”

Section: Dry January Self and Regulationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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New Year, New You: a qualitative study of Dry January, self-formation and positive regulation

Yeomans

2018

Drugs: Education, Prevention and Policy

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In the last five years, giving up alcohol for January has become a common social practice in the UK. Inspired by Alcohol Concern's Dry January initiative and other related campaigns, an estimated five million UK adults attempted to abstain from alcohol in January 2017 (Alcohol Concern, 2017). Moreover, evaluative research has suggested that a one-month spell of abstinence is an effective way of reducing average, longer-term drinking (De Visser, Robinson & Bond, 2016). However, the popularity and apparent effectiveness of Dry January are not well-understood. This article presents the first qualitative analysis of the meaning and significance of this important new cultural phenomenon. Based on analysis of media and social media content, it examines both how Dry January is managed by Alcohol Concern and how it is experienced by participants. The burgeoning popularity of Dry January is found to result from how this process of temporary abstinence is underpinned by positive regulatory techniques and the salience of embodiment. Consequently, rather than being a simple regime of bodily abstinence and self-control, Dry January should instead be understood as an embodied experience of ethical self-formation. The article also reflects on the implications of this finding for alcohol regulation more widely.

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Section: Dry January Self and Regulationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Plus, participants in TAIs may not be representative of drinkers in general. Indeed, evidence suggests that moderate drinkers are more likely to participate(Robert, 2016b).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

New Year, New You: a qualitative study of Dry January, self-formation and positive regulation

Yeomans

2018

Drugs: Education, Prevention and Policy

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“…TSIs are taken up mostly by segments of the public who are cognizant of the negative social and health effects of alcohol and use the structure and social legitimation of a popular event to make anti-consumption choices (Cherrier & Gurrieri, 2013; Robert, 2016). Thus even those TSIs such as Australia’s Dry July, which conceive of themselves primarily as fundraisers for the charities they support (Dry July, 2016), recognize that participants are often motivated by a desire to change their relationship to alcohol and/or to reduce their drinking as a way to improve their overall health (see also Dry January, 2015; Dry July, 2015, p. 6; FebFast, 2013b).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Meeting the Sober Self, Recognizing the Drinking Self

Robert

2018

Contemporary Drug Problems

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Experimentation in Temporary Sobriety Initiatives Temporary Sobriety Initiatives (TSIs), popular month-long campaigns in which people abstain from alcohol to raise money for charity, aim to change participants' relationship with alcohol. Identifying the structural and practical mechanisms of TSIs that facilitate the desired changes are important elements in understanding their popularity and purported effectiveness as public health campaigns. Drawing upon indepth interviews with 15 Australian FebFast participants, this article argues that TSI participants, often guided by campaign organisers, loosely adopt the self-tracking and self-experimentation practices of the Quantified Self (QS) movement, which open up aspects of oneself and of alcohol that are normally hidden in order to facilitate self-improvement via discovery. Drew Leder's corporeal phenomenology of absence and presence underpins the analysis of how TSI participants contrast deliberate periods of sobriety and inattentive normal drinking to convert abstract knowledge about alcohol and its effects into personally salient information based on lived experience. In doing so, participants shift the valence of their ambivalence about drinking, even at moderate levels, and convert it from the less behaviourally impactful potential ambivalence to its more influential felt form. Through such experiments, TSI participants problematize their drinking, make real the physical, psychological and social impacts of alcohol, and even redefine what they know it to be.

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“…Embodied philanthropists in Australia represent a range of demographics, largely depending on the type of participation required and these constraints cut across broader trends in volunteering. Studies of campaigns where participants give up alcohol, for instance, are most popular among women in their 30s and 40s (Robert, ), a finding that aligns with general rates of volunteering. This kind of embodied philanthropy nonetheless excludes segments of the population who do not drink alcohol, such as members of certain religious communities, who often volunteer at higher rates than the general population (Merrill, ; Scaife et al, ).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 89%

“…It is reasonable to suspect that embodied philanthropy campaigns compete, at least to some extent, with one another and with more traditional ways of soliciting donations. There are, for instance, three national, month‐long fundraisers predicated on abstaining from alcohol, and few participants sign up for more than one (Robert, ). If and precisely how embodied philanthropy, either as a whole or in particular iterations, detracts from other forms of giving (or volunteering) or whether it reaches audiences not previously engaged in philanthropy is yet to be determined.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Practices and rationales of embodied philanthropy

Robert

2017

J of Philanthropy and Mktg

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In the past decades, philanthropy, like many aspects of contemporary culture, has taken a bodily turn. This paper argues that embodied philanthropy, the temporarily alteration of one's physical appearance or routine behaviors in support of a cause, is flourishing because the body simultaneously and with relatively little effort serves the various needs of both participants and campaign organizers. The body's multivalent semiotic potential allows it to be, when philanthropically tasked, an income generator, billboard, martyred example, producer of emotion, pedagogical space, exemplar of good health, and style project and to cohere these functions despite potential tensions.A series of micro-case studies of various Australian appearance, activity, and abstention-based initiatives draws on cultural theories of the body to explicate these 7 core functions of the philanthropic body and highlight key concerns for campaign design and evaluation. This study contends that a holistic view of embodied philanthropy initiatives is needed to better understand their impact and provides practitioners and scholars with a framework for understanding an area of philanthropy where practice outstrips research.

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Temporary sobriety initiatives: emergence, possibilities and constraints

Cited by 7 publications

References 23 publications

New Year, New You: a qualitative study of Dry January, self-formation and positive regulation

New Year, New You: a qualitative study of Dry January, self-formation and positive regulation

Meeting the Sober Self, Recognizing the Drinking Self

Practices and rationales of embodied philanthropy

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