The borders of booze Britain: alcohol controls and nationality

Abstract

Abstract:This paper seeks to understand how United Kingdom alcohol control policies, historically and currently, are both informed by and seek to inform how we conceptualise the nation and nationality. Using the latest minimum price per unit of alcohol policy as a point of departure and setting it the context of over three hundred years of alcohol controls, this paper exposes how the internal contradictions inherent in alcohol regulation are obscured by the deployment of nationalism as a rhetorical device URL: http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/rsoc E-mail: acssjournal@ioe.ac.uk Contemporary Social Science

Alcohol and public policy

“…For example, prohibition in the USA arose, in part, in response by a dominant Protestant majority to large influx of Catholic immigrants. Henri (2013) challenges us to consider that contemporary attempts at alcohol controls in places such as Scotland may be an attempt to further define Scotland's national identity, namely, the idea of Scottishness versus others. Alcohol controls may not only speak to the effectiveness of public policy, but also be expressive about the self-identity of groups.…”

“…We revisit the issue of minimum pricing in historical and comparative contexts. Henri (2013) argues that alcohol controls may be utilised to reinforce notions of nationality. Therefore, we should not only consider these controls strictly in terms of public health, but also in reference to identity.…”