Heavy Night At Home Or A Tipple On The Town

Does Where We Drink Affect Our Attitude To Alcohol?Leading experts from across Britain's 'binge-drinking' debate will meet at the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) on Wednesday 10 February to discuss whether we need to recognise the places where people drink as a significant influence on their behaviour.

Drinking spaces and places: who drinks alcohol, where and why?, the latest in a series of Environment and Society Forums at the RGS-IBG, looks behind the headlines to ask if policy-makers are using the right data, and authorities are being set the right targets, to tackle the social impacts of drinking to excess.

Bringing together speakers from public health, criminology, business, and non-government organisations, it will examine the realities of the UK's alcohol 'crisis', highlighting the latest research into private and public drinking practices, including:

- The marked variations in the UK's regional drinking patterns based on findings from the most recent National Health Survey 2008 (Dr Nicola Shelton, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at University College, London and Elizabeth Fuller, National Centre for Social Research).

- The relationship between new public spaces, often created through urban regeneration strategies, and people's drinking behaviour; emphasising the influence of geographical location on young people (Professor Marion Roberts, School of Architecture and the Built Environment, University of Westminster).

- The shift from city-centre drinking to the home, and its implications for domestic relationships (Professor Gill Valentine, University of Leeds, Dr Mark Jayne, University of Manchester, and Dr Sarah Holloway, University of Loughborough).

As Department of Health, Home Office, and other Government department campaigns continue to focus on individual issues; from the personal risks of 'bingeing' to 'problematic' groups who threaten social order; this forum will ask if a better understanding of the extent to which the places where people live and drink affect their attitudes to alcohol, can improve links between drinking policies across Whitehall.