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In this issue
- Back to the future: understanding and responding to alcohol use in Liverpool
by Martin Whiteford and Paula Byrne - Fostering inter-cultural dialogue – visionary intentions and the realities of a dedicated public space
by Ronan Paddison, Marilyn Keenan and Sophie Bond - Trust and participation in urban regeneration
by Dominic Aitken - Everyday consumption practices as a site for activism? Exploring the motivations of grassroots reuse groups
by Mike Foden - Book Review: End This Depression Now!
by Steve Fothergill - Book Review: Climate Change and Society
by Will Eadson
Back to the future: understanding and responding to alcohol use in Liverpool
Summary
Popular narratives have variously depicted Liverpool as a city of decline, protest, revival and hedonism. From being the ‘Detroit of England’ to the ‘alcohol capital of England’, Liverpool is seen to spatially and discursively embody a ‘place of chronicity’. In this paper, we explore the way in which place matters to health in order to critically interrogate why it is that Liverpool has consistently recorded the highest level of alcohol-related hospital admissions in England. To this end, we draw on qualitative interviews with health and social care practitioners working with people with complex alcohol needs. The interviews provide an important insight into the practical and policy realities of alcohol misuse in Liverpool. We further suggest that local responses to alcohol consumption and addiction are explicitly tied to both an imperative to overturn the city’s negative reputation and self-image and a commitment to improving the health and well-being of high impact users.
