Swimming with Crocodiles: The Culture of Extreme DrinkingSwimming 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
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
Afterword (by Marjana Martinic and Fiona Measham)
Annex 1: Procedures for focus groups on extreme drinking
Annex 2: Guiding questions for focus groups
Synopsis (in English, French, German, Italian, Mandarin,
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