Join us for drinks: intoxication, work & academic conferences

Abstract

Intoxication can be a mild experience as well as a profoundly consciousness-altering one. In its mild and everyday forms, intoxication can be compatible with productivity, as seen in the twentieth-century relationship between smoking and work. This chapter examines the experience and effects of such minor forms of intoxication in relation to alcohol consumed at work or at work-related events. It focuses specifically on the role of drinking at academic conferences. The chapter argues that drinking contributes to the varied embodied experiences of conference attendance, including the sense of belonging or being out of place. In practices of networking in particular, we see how intoxication can become work in contexts where expectations of informal spontaneity are combined with the pursuit of professional goals. The chapter ends by noting that while organisations and institutions continue to use intoxication to create atmospheres and promote affective bonds, cultural norms of consumption seem to be changing, in part propelled by increasing awareness of the harms of obligatory drinking. Show more