Postdoc grant: Alcohol-related problems. The impact of cultural and contextual factors
Funding source: FAS - Swedish Research Council for Working Life and Social Research
Period: 1/1/08 - 12/31/09
Funding: 1360000 SEK
Description:
Alcohol in various forms has been used in virtually all of the cultures of the world for over 6000 years. Alcohol has been associated with both pleasure and a positive attitude towards life. At the same time, however, alcohol has also been linked to violence, accidents and other harms. It is not self-evident which phenomena are to be perceived as constituting alcohol-related problems, however, and these have varied over time. In the same way, it is not altogether clear why it is that alcohol sometimes leads to negative behaviours and sometimes does not.
This project has the objective of producing a better understanding of how the effects of alcohol are created in a social context and why certain behaviours are constructed as problems.
The project comprises four studies. The first is a vignette study whose objective is to examine norms relating to behaviour under the influence of alcohol in order to see whether alcohol may be used as an excuse for violence, and whether these norms differ across different groups within the adult population. The second is a cross-sectional study based on a data from 45,000 individuals on alcohol consumption, contextual factors and involvement in alcohol-related violence. The objective here is that of better understanding the contexts in which alcohol serves to increase the risk for violence. The third and last of the studies focusing on violence examines how the justice system deals with alcohol in the context of lethal violence. The objective is to examine whether perpetrators who were under the influence of alcohol at the time of the offence are given milder sentences than perpetrators who were sober. The final study in the project has a somewhat different focus. Here the process whereby problems are constructed will itself be examined. This will be done by means of a case-study focused on a 2004 campaign by the National Alcohol Committee which was intended to get pregnant women to stop drinking.
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