The analytical, the political and the personal: Swedish stakeholder narratives about alcohol policy at football stadiums

Abstract

For public health interventions to be effective, they need to be supported or at least accepted by those affected, and social policy should therefore be understood as political and strategic. This raises questions about the relationship between the analytical, the political and the personal in policy processes. This article offers an in-depth analysis of such issues, as they were enacted during interviews with Swedish alcohol policy stakeholders. It focuses on the assumptions and a priori ‘truths’ articulated in interviews about Responsible Beverage Services (RBS) at Swedish football stadiums or ‘Football Without Bingeing’. We argue that the participants combined different narrative forms, such as seemingly objective chronological accounts and personal ethical judgments, in talking about the policy initiative. Through such narrative intersections, three key ‘truths’ were produced that reinforced the link between alcohol and violence, necessitated blanket population-level measures to reduce alcohol use and made gendered behavior an irrelevant policy target.