Joanne Maree Lindsay

Stigma or respect: Lesbian-parented families negotiating school settings

This article explores the interface between lesbian-parented families and mainstream society through the example of schools. Lesbian-parented families are an increasingly visible family form; they are diverse and complex and raise challenges for heteronormative social institutions. Based on qualitative family interviews with lesbian-parented families in Melbourne, we discuss the dialectic between schools and families. In many heteronormative school contexts family members were stigmatized and burdened by secrecy and fear about their family configuration. However, there were also a significant minority of family members who felt respected, supported and safe within the school environment.These parents and children were out and proud about their families, and schools had responded with acceptance in both the schoolyard and the curriculum. We discuss the contextual factors (including social location and family formation), impacting on and constraining the interface between the families and schools, and point to opportunities for change.

Healthy living and citizenship: an overview

The effort to achieve ‘healthy living’ or adopt a ‘healthy lifestyle’ has become a predominant concern of our time. A perusal of websites (such as those quoted above), daily news articles, public health journals and popular magazines reveals a bewildering array of pertinent research evidence and advice. Directives such as those above, calling on individuals to ‘take responsibility’ and make ‘smart choices’ in relation to diet, exercise, emotional wellness and so on, have become a common feature of the discourses of health in many societies. Although it is especially pervasive in contemporary Western societies, this emphasis on healthy living is neither new nor unique to these societies. As early as the fifth century, one can find a substantial body of Greek literature focusing on the preservation and restoration of health, including prescriptions about diet, exercise, bathing and other regular habits. The Hippocratic treatise, On Regimen, offered detailed norms about ‘correct living’ with a view to health, with many prescriptions concerning self-control (Wilson 2006, p. 337). In more recent times, this concern has at times reached fever pitch, perhaps most famously in Germany during the 1930s and 1940s when the Nazi Party sought to improve the health of German citizens through promoting low-fat, high fibre foods, and encouraging a reduced intake of tobacco, alcohol and coffee and an increased intake of natural foods (Proctor 1999). However, over the past three decades, concern about healthy living and the best means to achieve it would seem to have reached a new, consistently high level in many societies. This special issue focuses on the imperatives surrounding ‘healthy living’ and their personal, social and policy implications. The issue includes a number of papers drawn from an event, ‘Healthy living and citizenship’, attended by social scientists and philosophers from the UK, Europe and Australia and held at Monash University’s Prato Campus in Italy, in June 2009. Hosted by members of the Health, Wellbeing and Social Change research cluster, based in the School of Political and Social Inquiry at Monash University, the event sought to explore the meanings of health and wellbeing in light of the changing relationship between citizens and the

‘I don’t know anyone that has two drinks a day’: Young People, Alcohol and the Government of Pleasure

Problematic alcohol consumption is a major public health, health education and health promotion issue in Australia and internationally. In an effort to better understand young peoples drinking patterns and motivations we investigated the cultural drivers of drinking in 14–24 year-old Australians. We interviewed 60 young people in the state of Victoria aged 20–24 about their drinking biographies. At the time of interviewing, the draft guidelines on low-risk drinking were released by the National Health and Medical Research Council, Australia, and we asked our participants what they knew about them and if they thought they would affect their drinking patterns. Their responses indicate that pleasure and sociability are central to young peoples drinking cultures which is supported by a range of research. However, O’Malley and Valverde claim that pleasure is silenced and/or deployed strategically in neo-liberal governance discourses about drugs and alcohol such as these guidelines which raises questions about the limits of such discourses to affect changes in drinking patterns.

Healthy living guidelines and the disconnect with everyday life

In Western democracies, citizens are advised by governments to manage their bodily practices in highly specific ways. There are guidelines for healthy eating, alcohol consumption, exercise and screen time. However, most research works suggest that there is a substantial gap between the guidelines and the ways in which most people live their lives. How can we make sense of this disconnect between the guidelines and everyday life? In this article, I discuss Australian healthy eating and healthy drinking guidelines. I argue that the guidelines invite us to manage our bodies in an idealised, individualised world where lifestyle change is a straightforward matter of putting knowledge into practice. Instead, we inhabit complex social worlds where food and alcohol are central to social life, and the enactment of our social identities and key social practices. Citizens do actively manage their food and alcohol consumption in an effort to be healthy, but they do so from a context where ‘social well-being’ is the primary aim. On the basis of current public health practice, it seems the guidelines will remain central to public health knowledge and funding claims but increasingly disconnected and irrelevant to citizens who inhabit contextualised social worlds.

A Big Night Out in Melbourne: Drinking as an Enactment of Class and Gender

Alcohol is a ubiquitous substance in Western cultures but knowledge about contemporary drinking cultures and consumption contexts is relatively sparse. Examining the ways in which drink choice and drinking settings are differentiated opens up new areas for analysis and health intervention. Drinking is not simply shaped by variables such as class and gender but is an enactment and expression of these social divisions. What, where, and how a person drinks is a simultaneous enactment of class and gender. This argument is based on research of drinking practices in pubs and clubs in Melbourne, Australia. The project used a qualitative methodology which involved a series of 30 field observations in 10 licensed premises. In addition 35 patrons (15 females and 20 males) aged 18–30 were recruited from the venues and participated in qualitative interviews about their drinking practices. Understanding drinking as an expression of social location has implications for models of alcohol research and health interventions.

Young Australians and the staging of intoxication and self-control

In 2007, according to newspaper reports, Melbourne streets had become ‘booze battlegrounds’. In the year that followed, binge drinking by young Australians was a major news focus and a subject for heightened public anxiety. Young drinkers were perceived to be out of control. In this paper, I draw on two qualitative research projects with young Australians to explore the contradictory social forces shaping their contemporary drinking landscape. Paradoxically, self-control is a major theme in the way participants discuss the management of their alcohol consumption. The concept of ‘staging intoxication’ is developed to explain how contemporary youth seek to enhance the pleasure and manage the risks of drinking. Ultimately, individual self-control is a weak moderating force on alcohol consumption in the face of market exploitation, incongruous state control and heavy drinking cultural expectations.

Lesbian parents negotiating the health care system in Australia

Twenty Australian lesbian-parented families were interviewed in multigenerational family groups about the interface between their public and private worlds. Experiences of the health care bureaucracy were difficult, whereas many participants found individual providers to be approachable and caring. Three strategies were used for disclosure of their sexual orientation to health care providers: private, proud, and passive. Influences on the strategy used included family formation, role of the non-birth parent, geographic location, and expected continuity of care. Parents displayed a high degree of thoughtful planning in utilizing their preferred disclosure strategy in order to optimize safety, particularly for their children.

The gendered trouble with alcohol: Young people managing alcohol related violence

BACKGROUNDnAlcohol related violence is a troubling backdrop to the social lives and relationships of many young people in post-industrial societies. The development of the night-time economy where young people are encouraged to drink heavily in entertainment precincts has increased the risk of violence.nnnMETHODSnThis paper reports on 60 individual structured in-depth interviews about the drinking biographies of young people (aged 20-24) living in Victoria, Australia. Twenty-six males and 34 females participated in the research. The participants discussed their experiences with alcohol over their life course to date. The material on alcohol related violence is analysed in this paper.nnnRESULTSnJust over half of the participants (33/60) recounted negative experiences with alcohol related violence. The findings demonstrate the continuing gendered nature of experiences of perpetration and victimization. Participants reported that aggression and violence perpetrated by some men was fuelled by alcohol consumption and required ongoing management. Experiences of violence were also spatialized. Men were more likely to report managing and avoiding violence in particular public settings whilst more women than men discussed managing violence in domestic settings.nnnCONCLUSIONnThe central argument of this paper is that incidents of alcohol related violence and reactions to it are specific gender performances that occur in specific socio-cultural contexts. In contrast to research which has found some young people enjoy the adventure and excitement of alcohol related violence the mainstream participants in this study saw violence as a negative force to be managed and preferably avoided. Understanding violence as a dynamic gender performance complicates the development of policy measures designed to minimize harm but also offers a more holistic approach to developing effective policy in this domain. There is a need for greater acknowledgement that alcohol related violence in public venues and in families is primarily about particular performances of masculinity and this is where policy should be targeted in addition to venue based interventions.

Responding to the Millennium drought: comparing domestic water cultures in three Australian cities

Adapting to water scarcity is a critical issue for many cities around the world as they respond to the influences of population growth, urbanisation and climate change. There is increasing recognition that geographic context has an impact on experiences of and approaches to domestic water use, but research comparing urban environments is scarce. This paper describes different domestic water cultures after the Millennium drought in three Australian cities—Melbourne, Perth and Brisbane. All three cities have experienced drought, or severe water shortages, over the past 15xa0years, and each city has responded differently. The experience of water scarcity and water restrictions imposed by governments impacted on people’s everyday lives in varied and profound ways. Drawing on quantitative data from a national survey (nxa0=xa05194) and qualitative data from focus groups, we found that a sense of water crisis led to household water conservation in Brisbane and Melbourne. In contrast, access to alternative water sources in Perth through desalination plants and household bores de-emphasised personal responses to household water conservation. The implications are that urban specific policies and interventions are needed to provide durable change in domestic water cultures. We argue that greater water sensitivity and responsiveness to water availability should be promoted in different urban centres, and that water supply solutions should be accompanied by initiatives that promote adoption of sustainable water practices and future resilience.

Getting the Numbers: The Unacknowledged Work in Recruiting for Survey Research

This article reflects on the work of recruiting participants for survey research. Published accounts in this area frequently neglect complex and time-consuming elements of the recruiting process. These are negotiating access with gatekeepers, negotiating the cooperation of participants, and emotional engagement in the recruitment process. This article describes these processes through the example of recruiting nonprofessional young workers for a survey on sex, drugs, and drinking. The challenges of recruiting for a quantitative study where there is limited rather than prolonged engagement in the field are examined in detail, and strategies for overcoming recruitment barriers are offered.