A few months ago I started a new research project, funded by VicHealth. The project is a study of men’s drinking cultures and practices in Victoria. Not the kind of thing I have done before, but I’m teaming up with Monash colleagues Steve Roberts, Brittany Ralph, Michael Savic, Kerry O’Brien, Jo Lindsay, and Karla Elliot. We are using the ‘scroll back’ research method I developed with Sian Lincoln to look at how drinking practices are mediated, recorded, made visible, and reflected on social media. We’re also using the scroll back method to prompt discussion and recall of specific drinking ‘events’ in interviews rather than more general practices and experiences in friendship focus groups.

Already we’ve found some really interesting themes emerging around gendered labour in photography and social media production, how care is mobilised among friends, and how settings shape drinking cultures. Watch this space for more!

Some infographics summarising our approach below by the very excellent Brittany Ralph.