Abstract

The ‘social worlds’ concept has been underutilized in alcohol research. This is surprising given that drinking is primarily a social activity, often a secondary part of a sociable occasion in a social world whose members come together around something they have in common, such as an occupation, a hobby, or an identity. Social worlds which include drinking in their practices often entail encouragements or pressures to drink more, though they may also try to impose some limits on drinking or related behavior. Heavy drinking social worlds may be a useful target for public health interventions aimed at supporting less harmful drinking practices, and this paper moves beyond a theoretical discussion of social worlds and their utility to suggest how the concept might be applied in practical terms. We discuss the various influences and actors that potentially impact on heavy drinking social worlds, and suggest a pragmatic typology of social worlds in terms of five features: activity-based, identification-based, settings-based, worldview-based and social position-based. Most social worlds will be characterized by more than one feature, although it is likely that one will predominate in a given social world. Examples are discussed of changes in drinking norms in heavy-drinking social worlds primarily characterised in terms of each of the five features. Implications are considered for public health programming to reduce risky drinking in such social worlds.

摘要

“社会世界”的概念在酒精研究中没有得到充分利用。这是令人惊讶的，因为饮酒主要是一种社交活动，通常是社交世界中社交场合的次要部分，其成员围绕他们的共同点聚在一起，例如职业、爱好或身份。在他们的实践中包括饮酒的社会世界通常会鼓励或施加压力以增加饮酒量，尽管他们也可能试图对饮酒或相关行为施加一些限制。大量饮酒的社会世界可能是旨在支持危害较小的饮酒行为的公共卫生干预的有用目标，本文超越了对社会世界及其效用的理论讨论，提出了如何在实际中应用这一概念。我们讨论了可能对酗酒社会世界产生影响的各种影响因素和参与者，并根据五个特征提出了社会世界的实用类型学：基于活动的、基于身份的、基于环境的、基于世界观的和基于社会地位的. 大多数社会世界都将具有不止一种特征，尽管一个特征很可能在给定的社会世界中占主导地位。讨论了酗酒社会世界中饮酒规范变化的例子，主要以五个特征中的每一个特征为特征。考虑到公共卫生规划的影响，以减少此类社会世界中的危险饮酒。基于世界观和基于社会地位。大多数社会世界都将具有不止一种特征，尽管一个特征很可能在给定的社会世界中占主导地位。讨论了酗酒社会世界中饮酒规范变化的例子，主要以五个特征中的每一个特征为特征。考虑到公共卫生规划的影响，以减少此类社会世界中的危险饮酒。基于世界观和基于社会地位。大多数社会世界都将具有不止一种特征，尽管一个特征很可能在给定的社会世界中占主导地位。讨论了酗酒社会世界中饮酒规范变化的例子，主要以五个特征中的每一个特征为特征。考虑到公共卫生规划的影响，以减少此类社会世界中的危险饮酒。