Scottish Health Action on Alcohol Problems (SHAAP) and Scottish Alcohol Research Network (SARN) warmly invite you to join us online on Wednesday 28 April from 12:30-14:00 BST for our fourth SHAAP/SARN Alcohol Occasionals event of 2021.
Dr Emily Nicholls (University of York) will deliver a presentation entitled: “Understanding drinking transitions during lockdown: social inequalities, alcohol and the COVID-19 pandemic” and we will then open to Q+A and wider discussion.
Emily is a Lecturer in Sociology at the University of York. Emily’s research interests are in gender, femininity, alcohol and sobriety. Emily is also a convener of the Sobriety, Abstinence and Moderation research cluster and a member of the British Sociological Association (BSA) Alcohol Study Group.
The webinar will be hosted online using the Zoom platform, and registrants will receive a link to join.
Alcohol Occasionals are free to attend and open to all, and our audience is diverse, including academics/researchers, healthcare professionals, policy-makers and members of the public.
Register for free now!
Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic and its associated ‘lockdowns’ and changes to social and leisure practices present opportunities for new research on drinking practices, drinking spaces and health and social inequalities more widely. The closure of pubs and bars may have accelerated a pre-existing trend reflecting a greater shift to domestic consumption and evidence seems to point to an increase in use of alcohol support websites during lockdown (BBC, 2020), increased sales of alcohol (Finlay and Gilmore, 2020) and a polarisation in drinking patterns. This suggests that those who drank more heavily prior to lockdown are consuming more alcohol, and lighter drinkers are more likely to have reduced consumption or stopped completely (Garnett et al., 2020). However, further research can develop our understanding of the nuances of any changes to consumption patterns during lockdown, and the ways in which changing drinking patterns may link with – or exacerbate – existing social and health inequalities. This paper draws on our qualitative research on ‘drinking in lockdown’ with 20 UK-based adults who regularly consume alcohol to highlight these issues. We explore how classed stereotypes and understandings of ‘problem drinking’ weave into the ways in which participants discursively position their changing consumption practices during lockdown, feeding into wider stereotypes that may stigmatise particular drinking practices whilst allowing hidden domestic consumption amongst the middle-classes to avoid scrutiny. We also consider how those with greater access to resources during lockdown (including time, finances, space and mobility) may be better able to use lockdown as a kind of ‘teachable moment’ or opportunity to reflect on drinking practices and reduce or temporarily stop consumption. For others who may be more adversely impacted by the pandemic – for example as a result of precarity or underlying health conditions – it may be more difficult to reflect upon or change drinking habits in positive ways.