Societal Response and the Moral Regulation of Public-Space Drinking

Abstract

These articles on (Torronen and Karlsson) and social control (Wacklin) of public space are broadly cast so that drinking and its control are framed and seen as representative (symbolic) of broader ideologies about the nature of responsible and appropriate behavior in public and private life. This approach is consistent with the classic work of Joseph Gusfield ( 1963, 1981) that views the consequences of temperance campaigns, policy initiatives, and social control as primarily symbolic rather than as instrumental in altering human behavior. Both articles view drinking as culturally defined action whose definition changes with time and place as well as with the characteristics of the actors (drinkers and labelers) involved. After summary comments on these two works, attention is turned to placing them in the broader context of the sociology of deviance.Using six years of newspaper editorials and testimony from Parliament, Torronen and Karlsson examine policy changes and the discourse associated with these changes from the context of the moral regulation of public space. Editorialists, citizens, politicians, and the police offered competing views of appropriate and inappropriate drinking behavior that changed over time. These constructions, as all interpretations, shift with contingencies: characteristics (youth, wino, middle class) of the drinker; characteristics of the drinking-related behavior (well-behaved, rowdy, offensive); and locale (parks, streets, buses, shopping centers). In viewing these constructions from the context of moral the authors call attention to the fact that drinking and drinking-related behavior are being seen as symbolic of other, broader issues, including personal control and freedom, youth and parental responsibility, and the nature of community.Jussi Wacklin examines and compares government actions and policies and police regimes in Leningrad/St. Petersburg and Helsinki that sought to regulate drinking in public establishments (space) in the interwar period. The cities are characterized by relatively similar drinking cultures, practices, and problems. State regulation, temperance movements, and other control practices of different types (police and temperance inspectors, licensing, state of taverns and beer halls, etc.) show some effect on locales of drinking as well as on the environment of drinking establishments, but little, if any, effect on altering consumption patterns and in controlling drinking problems. Wacklin imaginatively uses and interprets historical data (number of beer halls, establishment licenses, and arrest rates for public drunkenness) and combines them with secondary sources to provide a sound basis for his interpretations. Changing social-control policies along with discretionary enforcement practices had differential consequences along social class lines. Additionally, restrictions on public establishments likely encouraged more private drinking as well as a corresponding increase of drinking problems in streets, parks, and other settings.These two articles examine the discourse of citizens and political leaders as well as changes in policy and policing with respect to drinking, drinking-related behavior, and drinking establishments/settings. …