Relational drinking geographies: Towards vital flows and ‘open’ methods

Jayne and Valentine offer opportunities to engage with alcohol, drinking, and drunkenness in ways that do not unreflexively reproduce ‘alcohol studies’ ontologies and epistemologies, which are infused with moralising, disciplining, and normalising discourses. I expand their contribution by proposing two ways to account for the complexities of alcohol, drinking, and drunkenness. First, I argue that the concept of ‘vital flows’, drawing on the work of Stern, can contribute to the proposed research agenda, giving agency to an array of more-than-human actants. Second, I contend that a participatory research design, including ‘open’ novel methods, can allow insight into relational geographies. I illustrate this through a proposed empirical account with young people in Gypsy, Roma, and Traveller communities, who have been underexplored in relation to drinking geographies and beyond.