Swimming with Crocodiles: The Culture of Extreme Drinking
Editors: Marjana Martinic and Fiona Measham
Contributing Authors
Publisher:
Routledge
ICAP Book Series on Alcohol in Society
16 June 2008
Hardcover, 296 pages
ISBN: 978-0-415-95548-5
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Synopsis (in English, Chinese, French, German, Italian,
Portuguese, Russian, Spanish) Purchase Now
Overview of the book’s key arguments and findings
Chapter 1. Extreme Drinking (by Marjana Martinic and Fiona Measham): Introduces a new term, “extreme drinking,” to better define the pattern of heavy and rapid alcohol intake among some young people. Characterized by a range of social and health outcomes, this drinking pattern is generating considerable concern in many countries.
Chapter 5: Focus Group Results: Describes a series of focus groups held with young people of legal drinking age in Brazil, China, Italy, Nigeria, Russia, South Africa, and the United Kingdom (Scotland). The prevailing cultural views on alcohol, drinking, and young people in the countries selected are quite disparate, allowing both the commonalities and differences in extreme drinking to be considered.
Press Kit: Press Release (in French, Portuguese, Spanish), Fact Sheet (in French, Portuguese, Spanish), Who is ICAP (in French, Portuguese, Spanish), International Order Form
About the Book:
Swimming with Crocodiles examines the apparent increase in heavy drinking behavior by some young people in a number of countries, positioning it within its appropriate social, historical, and cultural contexts. The book argues in favor of a new term—“extreme drinking”—to fully encapsulate the many facets of this behavior, taking into account the underlying motivations for the heavy, excessive, and unrestrained drinking patterns among young people. The centerpiece of the book is a series of focus groups conducted with young people of legal drinking age in Brazil, China, Italy, Nigeria, Russia, South Africa, and the United Kingdom, which examine their views on extreme drinking, motivations behind it, and the cultural similarities and differences that exist, conferring at once risk and protective factors. The authors explore the developmental, cultural, and historical contexts that have surrounded this behavior, and offer a new approach to addressing it through prevention and policy. Swimming with Crocodiles: The Culture of Extreme Drinking is the ninth volume in the ICAP Book Series on Alcohol in Society.
Table of Contents:
Chapter 1: Extreme drinking (by Marjana Martinic and Fiona Measham)
Chapter 2: A history of intoxication: Changing attitudes to drunkenness and excess in the United Kingdom (by Fiona Measham)
Chapter 3: Beyond boundaries: Youth and the dream of the extreme (by Véronique Nahoum-Grappe, featuring Case Study: Young People’s Drinking in France by Marie Choquet)
Chapter 4: What motivates extreme drinking? (by Barbara Leigh and Christine Lee, featuring CASE STUDY: Drinking among young people in the United Kingdom by Fiona Measham)
Chapter 5: Focus Group Results (Brazil by Mônica Gorgulho and Vera Da Ros; CHINA by Ian Newman; ITALY by Enrico Tempesta; Nigeria by Olabisi Odejide, Olayinka Omigbodun, Ademola Ajuwon, Victor Makanjuola, Afolabi Bamgboye, and Frederick Oshiname; Russia by Eugenia A. Koshkina; South Africa by Chan Makan; Scotland, UK by Stephen March)
Chapter 6: Stakeholders and their roles (by Mark Leverton and Keith Evans)
Chapter 7: Extreme drinking, young people, and feasible policy (by Marjana Martinic and Barton Alexander, featuring Case Study: Botellón in Spain by Andrés Bascones Pérez-Fragero)
Chapter 8: Tackling extreme drinking in young people: Feasible interventions (by Mônica Gorgulho and Daniya Tamendarova, featuring Case Study: United States: Drinking among sorority and fraternity students by Jason Kilmer and Mary Larimer)
Afterword (by Marjana Martinic and Fiona Measham)
Annex 1: Procedures for focus groups on extreme drinking
Annex 2: Guiding questions for focus groups
About the Editors:
Marjana Martinic, PhD, is Vice President for Public Health at the International Center for Alcohol Policies (ICAP). Her work focuses on the nexus between the scientific evidence base and international alcohol policy development. Dr. Martinic has published extensively in the fields of neuroscience and alcohol policy. Her previous book, Reasonable Risk: Alcohol in Perspective (2004; co-authored with Barbara Leigh), is volume seven in the ICAP Book Series on Alcohol in Society.
Fiona Measham, PhD, is Senior Lecturer in Criminology in the Department of Applied Social Science, Lancaster University (UK). Dr. Measham has 20 years of experience in the fields of drug and alcohol use, gender, licensed leisure, and cultural criminology. She is co-author of Illegal Leisure (1998) and Dancing on Drugs (2001), based on two large-scale studies of young people’s drug and alcohol use, for both of which she was lead researcher.
Contributing Authors