ABSTRACT
Introduction The consumption of alcoholic drinks is an important feature of leisure in Western societies. Pleasure in drinking can be found simply in the enjoyment of taste, but also in the way it enhances personal relaxation, sociability and recreation (Keane, 2011). Drinking permeates social rituals such as christenings, weddings and funerals. This ubiquitous enjoyment of alcohol can be problematic. Consumption eventually aects drinkers’ consciousness and lessens self-control. Drinking has been blamed for diminished economic productivity, domestic disharmony and disruptions to public order. The intoxicating eects of alcohol allegedly lead to failure in social roles as worker, parent or user of public space (Room, 2011). Understandings of alcohol are thus acutely ambivalent: drinking is widely enjoyed yet frequently linked to many social problems (Guseld, 1996).
