Analysing gender in research and policy on alcohol-related violence among young people

In recent years, the issue of ‘alcohol-fuelled violence’, particularly among young people, has generated intense policy debate in Australia. While this debate is warranted, its contours and outcomes have been informed by a relatively narrow range of research resources. In particular, although Australian quantitative research shows a disproportionate involvement of young men in alcohol-related violence, and qualitative research highlights the complexities of gender and power and the contribution of men and specific masculinities to such violence, these issues receive scant attention in the research recommendations typically informing contemporary policy debate and its outcomes.

This ARC-funded project addressed the urgent need for a feminist analysis of the gender concepts operating in research and policy on alcohol and violence among young people and involved an international comparison of research and policy in Australia, Canada and Sweden. It consisted of textual analysis of key alcohol policy strategies and research articles, as well as in-depth interviews with alcohol policy stakeholders and researchers, across the three countries.

The project built on and extended research already conducted by the research team that identifies how unexamined concepts, such as gender, influence alcohol and other drug research and policy, and the social sciences. Data collection was completed in Australia, Canada and Sweden in early 2021. Peer-reviewed articles and book chapters analysing the treatment of gender in Australian, Canadian and Swedish quantitative research and government policy on ‘alcohol-related violence’, and in researcher and policy stakeholder accounts, have been published (see Publications below). A summary report of the main findings and recommendations will be finalised in early 2023.

The project team

Chief investigators:

  • Prof David Moore, Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society, La Trobe University, Australia
  • Prof Helen Keane, School of Sociology, The Australian National University, Australia

Partner investigators:

Project staff:

  • Dr Duane Duncan, Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society, La Trobe University, Australia (July 2018 – June 2021)
  • Ms Emily Lenton, School of Sociology, The Australian National University, Australia (March 2019 – August 2020)
  • Gina Mejdell Bjerland, Department of Social Work, Stockholm University, Sweden (January 2019 – January 2020)
  • Nicklas Dennermalm, Department of Social Work, Stockholm University, Sweden (January – June 2020)
  • Dr Adrian Farrugia, Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society, La Trobe University, Australia (July – December 2021)
  • Ms Gemma Nourse, Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society, La Trobe University, Australia (October – December 2022)

Publications

Duncan, D., Moore, D., Keane, H., Ekendahl, M., & Graham, K. (2022). The hammer and the nail: The triple lock of methods, realities and institutional contexts in Australian research on nightlife violence. International Journal of Drug Policy, 110, 103898.

Moore, D., Keane, H., Duncan, D., & Lenton, E. (2022). Handling complexity: Constituting the relationship between intoxication and violence in Australian alcohol policy discourse. In G. Hunt, T. Antin & V. Asmussen Frank (Eds.), Routledge Handbook of Intoxicants and Intoxication (pp. 484-498). Routledge.

Farrugia, A., Moore, D., Keane, H., Ekendahl, M., Graham, K., & Duncan, D. (2022). Noticed and then forgotten: Gender in alcohol policy stakeholder responses to alcohol and violence. Qualitative Health Research, 32(10), 1419-1432.

Keane, H., Moore, D., & Graham, K. (2022). Part of culture or toxic substance? Realities in transition in Australian and Canadian alcohol policy documents. Contemporary Drug Problems, 49(4), 405-418.

Ekendahl, M., Keane, H., & Moore, D. (2022). The analytical, the political and the personal: Swedish stakeholder narratives about alcohol policy at football stadiums. Critical Policy Studies,  DOI: 10.1080/19460171.2022.2065324

Moore, D., Keane, H., Ekendahl, M., & Graham, K. (2022). Gendering practices in quantitative research on alcohol and violence: Comparing research from Australia, Canada and Sweden. International Journal of Drug Policy, 103, 103669.

Duncan, D., Keane, H., Moore, D., Ekendahl, M., & Graham, K. (2022). Making gender along the way: Women, men and harm in Australian alcohol policy. Critical Policy Studies, 16(1), 1-18.

Duncan, D., Moore, D., Keane, H., & Ekendahl, M. (2022). Obscuring gendered difference: The treatment of violence in Australian government alcohol policy. Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State & Society, 29(3), 1057-1079.

Moore, D., Duncan, D., Keane, H., & Ekendahl, M. (2021). Displacements of gender: Research on alcohol, violence and the night-time economy. Journal of Sociology, 57(4), 860-876.

Moore, D. (2020). Masculinities and intoxication: Notes towards a co-constitutive approach. In F. Hutton (Ed.), Cultures of intoxication: Key issues and debates (pp. 211-235). Palgrave Macmillan.

Moore, D., Keane, H., & Duncan, D. (2020). Enacting alcohol realities: Gendering practices in Australian studies on ‘alcohol-related presentations’ to emergency departments. Sociology of Health and Illness, 42, 3-19.

Submissions

Moore, D., Keane, H., Fraser, S., valentine, k., & Seear, K. (2021). Submission to the Web-Based Consultation on the World Health Organization’s ‘Global Alcohol Action Plan 2022-2030’.

Moore, D., Keane, H., & Duncan, D. (2020). Submission on the Draft NHMRC Australian Guidelines to Reduce Health Risks from Drinking Alcohol.

Conference and seminar presentations (presenter)

Duncan, D., Moore, D., Keane, H., Ekendahl, M., & Graham K. (2022). The hammer and the nail: The triple lock of methods, realities and institutional contexts in Australian research on nightlife violence. The Australian Sociological Association Annual Conference, 28 November – 2 December, Melbourne.

Farrugia, A., Moore, D., Keane, H., Ekendahl, M., Graham, K., & Duncan, D. (2022). Noticed and then forgotten: Gender in alcohol policy stakeholder responses to alcohol and violence. European Conference on Addictive Behaviours and Dependencies, 23-25 November, Lisbon.

Moore, D. & Keane, H. (2022). Making gender more visible in research and policy on drugs and violence. Gender and Drugs Symposium, European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction Expert Event, 22 November, Lisbon.

Moore, D. (2022). Accounting for gender, alcohol and violence: An analysis of interviews with Australian quantitative researchers. Department of Social Work, Stockholm University, 8 November, Stockholm.

Keane, H. & Moore, D. (2022). The handling of gender in research and policy on alcohol and nightlife violence: Findings from an international comparative study of Australia, Canada and Sweden. Australasian Professional Society on Alcohol and other Drugs Annual Conference, 10-12 October, Darwin.

Ekendahl, M., Keane, H., & Moore, D. (2022). Men as unthinkable alcohol policy targets: Findings from Australia, Canada and Sweden. European Society for Social Drug Research Conference, 6-8 October, Vienna.

Ekendahl, M. (2022). The analytical, the political and the personal: Swedish stakeholder narratives about alcohol policy at football stadiums. Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society Research and Practice Seminar Series, 15 June, Melbourne.

Farrugia, A., Moore, D., Keane, H., Ekendahl, M., Graham, K., & Duncan, D. (2022). Noticed and then forgotten: Gender in alcohol policy stakeholder responses to alcohol and violence. Society for Applied Anthropology Annual Meeting, 22-26 March, online.

Duncan, D., Keane, H., & Moore, D. (2019). Realising change in the gendering practices of Australian alcohol policy. Paper presented at the Contemporary Drug Problems conference, 4-6 September, Prato.

Moore, D., Duncan, D., & Keane, H. (2019). Retrieving gender in quantitative research on alcohol and violence. Paper presented at the Contemporary Drug Problems conference, 4-6 September, Prato.