Exploring the lived experience of sobriety within a culture of excessive alcohol consumption

This research investigates the lived experience of sobriety within a culture of intoxication. Taking Ireland as an appropriate case study, the research explores how young Irish male consumers aged between 18-28 years,... [ view full abstract ]

This research investigates the lived experience of sobriety within a culture of intoxication. Taking Ireland as an appropriate case study, the research explores how young Irish male consumers aged between 18-28 years, negotiate a sense of space or place within a culture of excessive alcohol consumption. The research draws theoretically on literature related to both anti-consumption and consumer resistance (Cherrier et al. 2011). Seven phenomenological interviews were conducted with consumers regarding their subjective experiences of intentional non-consumption of alcohol. The findings highlight a notable resistance to certain aspects of ritual practice (Nuttall & Tinson 2011) and the ideology surrounding alcohol consumption, including dominant conceptualisations of what it means to be sociable within Irish society. The findings also provide insight into the socially contested nature of sobriety. A sense of abnormality surrounds sobriety within Irish society, particularly with regard to the youth cohort. Here we find that the perceptions of the unknown other represent a pertinent challenge to one’s choice to abstain. This has important implications for those choosing abstinence as a means of expressing resistance. Here the counter resistant ideologies surrounding the practice of sobriety may function to restrict the possibilities of utilising abstinence as a form of socio-cultural critique.