The Pub and the People. A Worktown Study by Mass Observation.

Mass Observation was an independent social research organization which, between 1937 and 1949, documented the attitudes, opinions and everyday lives of the British people, using a combination of anthropological fieldwork, opinion surveys and written testimony. The Pub and the People is a classic text for its distinctly sociological approach, seeing patterns of drinking and socializing in context, rather than focusing primarily on pathological consequences. The main conclusions were that the pub is a living social organism and that the traditional approach of British sociology which, Mass Observation argued, focused on 'the drink problem' and the links between alcohol, crime and delinquency, failed to take account of the full social context. Mass Observation's focus on the pub as a place anticipates themes taken up in work on alcohol in cultural geography. Later alcohol researchers and epidemiologists have continued this orientation, recognizing the importance of physical and social environments in relation to alcohol consumption. Other studies have built on the MO initiative by looking at how drug and alcohol consumption links to identity, friendship and sociality or at the connections between intoxication and pleasure. The value of this classic text is that it reminds us that paying attention to the social context is not just a useful supplement, but absolutely central to understanding the use of alcohol or drugs

‘Don’t use “the weak word”’: Women brewers, identities and gendered territories of embodied work

Focusing on an unresearched group of women brewers, and drawing conceptually on embodiment and identity work, this article explores worker corporealities within the gendered landscape of microbreweries and deepens understanding of the body/work/gender nexus in the context of brewer’s work. In doing so, it challenges the marginalisation of female worker bodies in scholarly work on male-dominated occupations. Drawing on interview and observation data collected in the UK in 2015, verbal narratives of women brewers’ experiences of their working lives are utilised to provide insights into how their gendered bodily practices constitute resources for constructing a distinctive ‘brewster’ identity. Women brewers engage in identity work, on both individual and collective levels, through the material and symbolic framing of their embodied and gendered working selves; navigating their physical working environments; downplaying gender to emphasise physical competence; and foregrounding gender in relation to non-physical aspects to accentuate difference and collective contribution

'Real Ale' Enthusiasts, Serious Leisure and the Costs of Getting ‘Too Serious’ about Beer

© 2016, Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. The article uses the concept of serious leisure to explain the leisure commitments made by members of the British consumer campaign group the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) and that of Real Ale enthusiasts in general. Drawing on in-depth qualitative research including interviews with CAMRA branch members and staff, the article demonstrates that beer appreciation can be understood as a serious rather than a casual leisure activity. While many of the benefits to participation typical of serious leisure activities are identified, so are the numerous “costs” involved. Beyond costs relating to money, time, obligation, and organizational conflicts, the article suggests that Real Ale enthusiasts are at times marginalized by wider cultural stereotypes positioning them as obsessive and snobbish. The article concludes with discussion of how the concept of the cultural omnivore might explain how serious leisure practitioners are often marginalized because of their specialism in a single field rather than many

Off the leash and out of control : masculinities and embodiment in eastern European stag tourism

Entrenched conceptions of masculinity have constructed the male body as bounded and controlled. This article discusses the centrality of a particular construction of the male body to the phenomenon of British premarital stag party tourism to Eastern European cities. Drawing on data from participant-observation in Kraków, Poland, it is shown that the tour participants enact an embodied masculinity which is unruly and unrestrained. The stag tour experience is embodied through the use of clothing and incidences of nudity, public urination and vomiting, and the detrimental physical effects of heavy alcohol consumption. This embodiment is self-destructive and frequently self-parodic. The failures of participants to sustain a controlled and contained body are celebrated as part of the enactment of a boisterous masculinity. This represents a release from normative pressures concerning the male body but, with transgression being only temporary, also acts to support the ritualistic reinscription of a wider hegemonic masculinity

Rhythm and booze: Contesting leisure mobilities on the Transpennine Real Ale Trail

Ale Trails, where a series of pubs noted for serving real ale and craft beer are linked together along a prescribed route followed either on foot or by bus or train, are now a well-established activity in the UK and beyond. However, in some cases they have become associated with large groups of rowdy drinkers characterised by excessive consumption and disorderly behaviour. While copious research has focused on drinking urban leisure spaces, few studies have examined leisure mobilities involved in drinking in, and intoxicated mobilities through, rural and suburban spaces. This article uses Henri Lefebvre’s concept of rhythmanalysis to analyse leisure mobility through the spaces constituting the Ale Trail – including pubs, train carriages, station platforms and village streets. In these spaces, the differing rhythms of diverse individuals and groups as they move through heterogeneous spaces on foot and by train give rise to both shifting alignments and conflicts. The article concludes with a discussion of the spatial, temporal and affective dimensions of alcohol consumption and demonstrates the relevance of rhythmanalysis concepts and methods for exploring contemporary forms of leisure mobilities

Post-Authentic Engagement with Alternative Political Commentary on YouTube and Twitch

The authors examine authenticity in relation to Alternative Political Commentators (APCs) on YouTube and Twitch. Drawing on Owens (2019) provocative claim that contemporary (online) culture may be ‘post-authentic’, the authors use the term post-authentic engagement to explore in/out-group dynamics between influencers and their audiences. This view is evidenced through an examination of the usage of emojis and emotes by audiences to engage in the fast-paced chats that accompanied the livestream coverage of two APCs, HasanAbi and The Young Turks, during the 2020 US Presidential Election

Post-Authentic Engagement with Alternative Political Commentary on YouTube and Twitch

The authors examine authenticity in relation to Alternative Political Commentators (APCs) on YouTube and Twitch. Drawing on Owens (2019) provocative claim that contemporary (online) culture may be ‘post-authentic’, the authors use the term post-authentic engagement to explore in/out-group dynamics between influencers and their audiences. This view is evidenced through an examination of the usage of emojis and emotes by audiences to engage in the fast-paced chats that accompanied the livestream coverage of two APCs, HasanAbi and The Young Turks, during the 2020 US Presidential Election

‘Did you ever hear of police being called to a beer festival?’ Discourses of merriment, moderation and ‘civilized’ drinking amongst real ale enthusiasts

This paper was accepted for publication in the journal The Sociological Review and the definitive published version is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1467-954X.12361.While the real and perceived excesses of 'binge drinking' have received considerable attention in policy, media and academic debates, the concept of 'sensible drinking' is poorly defined and has rarely been subject to empirical analysis. Using qualitative research, this article explores the drinking discourses of ale enthusiasts as a means of highlighting how understandings of sensible drinking draw on notions of taste, sociability and self-control. Drawing on Elias's concept of the 'civilizing process', the article analyses how these narratives highlight self-control and social regulation as central features of acceptable drinking practices. Emerging from these accounts is a rejection of elements of the night-time economy and the unruly and hedonistic 'determined drunkenness' often associated with it