Cultures of Alcohol Consumption

Project Summary:

Alcohol policy debates today often focus on health risks. Research informing these discussions relies on studies measuring harm across populations. While this research is important, it can overlook how drinking is experienced in everyday life and the role drink and drinking spaces play in social relationships and cultural settings. This project brings together scholars from humanities and the social sciences to explore how social and cultural research on drinking can contribute to public discussions. Rather than ignoring health concerns, the project seeks to broaden the conversation. It will develop practical tools such as policy briefs and conceptual frameworks for alcohol policy that help express more accurately the place of alcohol in social life without ignoring potential harms. By expanding collaboration at the University of Bristol, academic partners, and community groups, the project aims to support more informed, balanced, and culturally aware  discussions about alcohol and society.

Visitor Biography:

Dan Malleck is a medical historian specializing in drug and alcohol history and policy. He is a professor and past chair in the Department of Health Sciences at Brock University and served as editor-in-chief of the Social History of Alcohol and Drugs for over a decade. He contributes to the current discussions on liquor regulation, cannabis laws, the opioid crisis, and drink policy using historically grounded analysis to provide insight into current issues. His books include Try to Control Yourself: The Regulation of Public Drinking in Post-Prohibition Ontario (2012); When Good Drugs Go Bad: Opium, Medicine, and the Origins of Canada’s Drug Laws (2015); Liquor in the Liberal State: Drink and Order before Prohibition (2022) as well as three edited collections. In recent years he has engaged more directly in discussions about the limits of alcohol research, notably the increasing tendency for research to emphasize harms while minimizing or dismissing benefits including social cultural and personal benefits of drinking. Culture, pleasure, creativity, and social meaning are not captured well in population health data alone, and historical perspectives help expand those conversations, and enhance policy formation.