Researching sensitive topics in African cities: reflections on alcohol research in Cape Town

Rethinking Whiteness and Masculinity in Geography: Drinking Alcohol in the Field in Vietnam

“…Some work has already been accomplished in setting a more reflexive and clearer course on these matters (eg Sultana ) but more needs to be done in addressing how shifts in understandings of our own identities in the field force us to rethink our ethical treatments of the researcher–respondent relationship during the research process. In this sense this paper draws from Lawhon et al (:19) statement that research on ethically complicated yet ubiquitous practices like alcohol consumption “beg the question of the impact of the interview‐interviewee dynamic on the research process itself”. This paper is concerned with the ethics that underpin the research process as a result of drinking/abstaining from alcohol in the field.…”

“…Geographical research on drinking, drunkenness, and alcohol (Jayne et al , ) centers on legislation and its impact on different groups and spaces (Wilton and Moreno ), health issues related to alcohol use and abuse (Deverteuil and Wilton ), and on social practices, relations, and performances as they inform livability and identity politics issues (see Leyshon ). Drinking practices and spaces in the global South are omitted from most of the human geography literature on alcohol and drunkenness (though see Brickell ; Saldanha ) and essentially nothing has been written about the various positionalities at play among geographers who are embedded in and contribute to social drinking spaces (for an exception, see Lawhon et al ). In sum, we lack the tools to understand how to record and reflect on these meetings, and to critically assess the spatial politics arising from abstaining from or consuming alcohol in the field and among research participants.…”

“…The objective in evaluating drinking with respondents is to show that drinking alcohol is a type of malleable research ethic that shapes spaces of whiteness and masculinity. In this way I wish to add to existing geographical scholarship on alcohol, drinking, and drunkenness that attends to respondent relationships with alcohol but that does not tend to account for the investigator's incorporation of alcohol consumption in the research process (eg Jayne and Valentine ; Jayne et al , ; though see Lawhon et al ).…”

Introduction

“…Ces publications contribuent à orienter progressivement les questionnements autour de la consommation, explorant l'histoire et l'anthropologie des pratiques culturelles et de l'alimentation autour du « boire » (Douglas 1986, Huetz de Lemps 2011, Obadia 2004, Nourrisson 2013), l'histoire des représentations de l'alcool et de l'alcoolisme (Fillaut, Nahoum-Grappe et Tsikounas 1999). Plus récemment, les histoires mondiales de l'alcool (Hames 2012, Anderson et Pinilla 2018 examinent les modalités de diffusion de l'alcool et de ses modes de production, notamment en contexte colonial, et montrent comment la boisson et sa consommation (ou non-consommation) constituent à la fois un outil de répression et une forme de résistance culturelle (Burnett 1999, Kneale 2001, Jayne, Valentine & Holloway 2008, Chrzan 2013, Lawhon, Herrick & Daya 2014.…”

“…Les thématiques classiques liées aux terroirs, aux paysages et à la patrimonialisation (Bailly 2000, Delaplace et Gatelier 2014) connaissent un certain renouveau, interrogées sous l'angle de l'agriculture biologique ou du réchauffement climatique (Dougherty 2012, Célérier 2013. Elles s'articulent aux problématiques que soulève la mondialisation de la production, qui implique d'une part une diversification des réseaux commerciaux et des transferts de connaissances (Schirmer et Velasco-Graciet, 2010, Legouy et Boulanger 2015, Thurnell-Read 2019, et d'autre part un examen des héritages historiques et coloniaux dans les processus de fabrication, de mise en vente (Huetz de Lemps 1997, Crenn, Demossier et Techoueyres 2004, Jolly 2004, Lawhon, Herrick & Daya 2014) et de consommation. La deuxième approche, plus quantitative, renvoie à diverses cartographies renseignant d'une part sur les usages de l'alcool et d'autre part sur la disponibilité de l'alcool, prenant en compte divers points de vente (débits de boissons, commerces) (Jayne, Holloway & Valentine 2006et 8, Shelton et Savell 2011, Nakkash et al 2018.…”