"Nice little life-hack"? NoLo alcohol and the virtuous self
Examination of NoLo consumption and the "re-moralisation" of sobriety.
This presentation examines the consumption of No and Low alcohol (NoLo) consumption and the "re-moralisation" of sobriety as a form of 'wellness' and 'self-optimisation.' Its target audience are students and staff interested in the growing market for NoLo products, as well as the wider public health implications of their consumptions' entanglement with broader 'wellness' culture.
Recent years have seen a significant expansion in the No and Low alcohol (NoLo) market, with the UK government committing to support 'growth' and 'innovation' in this area. This has occurred alongside the (re)framing of sobriety as a (classed and gendered) 'wellness' and 'self-optimisation' project enacted in and beyond digital spaces. Whilst such changes may appear encouraging from a public health perspective, little is known about how practices of NoLo consumption and contemporary sober identities are embodied, enacted and framed by consumers, and the potential implications for alcohol harm reduction. This paper draws on my ongoing research on sobriety and NoLo consumption to highlight how consumers incorporate NoLo products into everyday routines, social practices and identity construction to craft the productive, restrained and discerning consumer-citizen, enacting contemporary modes of 'neo-temperance' based on highly individualised projects of self-optimisation. In this way, NoLos function not merely as practical tools to facilitate abstinence, moderation or 'hybridised' drinking, but as moral signifiers deeply entangled in the construction of an 'enterprising' and 'virtuous' self. Such findings enhance our understandings of ways in which consumers enact both moderation and sobriety today, with implications for policymakers and stakeholders in and beyond public health.
Speaker
Dr Emily Nicholls
Dr Emily Nicholls is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of York, UK. She has been researching alcohol, drinking and sobriety for the last decade, starting with a foray into drinking and the 'girls' night out' in North-East England in the early 2010s. Her monograph 'Negotiating Femininities in the Neoliberal Night-Time Economy' was published in 2019, and over recent years she has researched drinking during the COVID-19 pandemic, women’s experiences of early sobriety and - most recently – the marketing and consumption of No and Low Alcohol (NoLo) drinks. Her current research includes impact-focused work to improve NoLo availability and visibility.
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