Unveiling the myth of declining youth alcohol use globally

The harmful use of alcohol causes an estimated 3 million deaths every year, of which a significant proportion occur in the young. While alcohol consumption among youth appears to be decreasing in North America and Europe, a new book by University College Dublin (UCD)'s Dr Emeka Dumbili challenges the assumption that youth drinking is 'in decline' globally.

Focusing on Nigerian youth, Reconfiguring Drinking Cultures, Gender, and Transgressive Selves (Palgrave Macmillan, 2024) presents an in-depth analysis of young people's experiences of diverse drinking practices, offering a rare analysis of the gendering of alcohol in a non-Western context.

Dr Dumbili interrogates why, and to what extent, young people's drinking is on the rise in low and middle-income countries, in sharp contrast to youth drinking decline in most Western countries. He explains, "This book moves beyond solely Western theorizing. Combining Western and non-Western theorizations, it provides insights into the alcohol industry's role in gendered transgressive drinking and highlights the need to urge caution in generalizing youth drinking decline."

An Assistant Professor and Ad Astra Fellow at UCD's School of Sociology, Dr Dumbili's research focuses on the gendering of alcohol, evolving drinking cultures, and the effects of alcohol marketing and policy processes. He continues, "The book analyses how young people enact masculinities and femininities through transgressive and conforming drinking practices that reconfigure drinking cultures through heavy drinking and intoxication. I examine how global and local alcohol corporations contribute to gendered transgressive drinking in Nigeria by their targeted marketing to young people, and consider the impacts of imposed alcohol regulations and reactions of resistance and subversion."

The research literature on alcohol and society in Nigeria is sparse at best. This is a significant contribution to research on alcohol in Africa with immense policy relevance, especially at this time when Nigeria and other countries are grappling with the development of national alcohol policies."

Professor Isidore S. Obot, Executive Director at the Centre for Research and Information on Substance Abuse (CRISA) in Uyo, Nigeria

The book will benefit students, social scientists, policymakers, and those interested in decolonizing gender scholarship or commercial determinants of health.

Dr Dumbili is a mentor on the WHO Scientific Research and Writing Mentorship Initiative towards diversity in research on alcohol control policies, and has held teaching and research positions in universities and institutes in Nigeria, Germany, and the UK. Watch the November 2023 World Health Organisation Webinar on Youth and Alcohol featuring Dr Emeka Dumbili.

For more information and to purchase the book visit the Springer website, enter discount code: YTY9B7afrAJKRp at checkout, valid Mar 27, 2024 - Apr 24, 2024 (20% off the printed book or eBook).

Book reviews:

"Alcohol has diverse usage: as an intoxicant, medicine, antiseptic, for pleasure, in ritual, and as exchange value. The cultural intervention to impose regulation on the who and how of this usage negatively impacts the socio-political dynamics of gender, age, race and class. We thus get the reactions of resistance, transgression and subversion. Emeka Dumbili's very interesting book, with its focus on Nigerian youth, examines the local contexts of these dynamics. Insightfully, it also shows the global and intercultural reach of the contradictions embodied in male-gendering of drinking alcohol and an associated macho-culture that is promoted by patriarchy and capitalism. The excluded categories, the youth, in particular, resort to secrecy with its detrimental consequences, such as heavy drinking, intoxication and violence. In this corrupting process, capitalism undervalues and undermines the natural African and traditional local productions and industry. With new alcohol products, promises of enhanced sexual performance and new drinking habits that generate new personna, class and gender consciousness, the youth and women express new modernity-derived status through drinking new brands of alcohol. They thereby relegate the peasant masses to a derogatory supposed primitiveness. This is an informative, enjoyable and educational book, with a rich and detailed narrative of people's lived experiences that supersedes the simple problematization of alcohol." (Ifi Amadiume, Professor, Dartmouth College, USA)

"A valuable addition to the literature on gender and alcohol consumption, with a welcome and timely focus on the Nigerian context that complicates the assumption that youth drinking is 'in decline' globally. Dumbili's nuanced, rich and comprehensive work meaningfully extends our understanding of gender and drinking in an African context, centring a particular geographical space yet at the same time presenting arguments and insights with wider applicability to a range of global settings. The foregrounding of the theme of 'transgression' presents a powerful lens through which to interrogate gender and drinking and enhances contemporary theorisations of sexuality, masculinity and femininity in both Western and non-Western contexts." (Dr Emily Nicholls, Lecturer in Sociology, University of York)

"The research literature on alcohol and society in Nigeria is sparse at best. Clearly lacking are analyses that highlight the social and demographic factors associated with drinking and its consequences. Using findings from qualitative research, Dr Dumbili has provided an in-depth analysis of the drinking culture among Nigerian youth, drawing on many years of experience. The work focuses attention on critical issues like alcohol and gender, drinking motivations, and the pernicious behaviour of the alcohol industry of targeting youth. This is a significant contribution to research on alcohol in Africa with immense policy relevance, especially at this time when Nigeria and other countries are grappling with the development of national alcohol policies." (Isidore S. Obot , Professor, Executive Director, Centre for Research and Information on Substance Abuse (CRISA), Uyo, Nigeria)