‘Not Just Living in the Moment’: Constructing the ‘Enterprising’ and Future-Oriented Self Through the Consumption of No-and-Low-Alcohol Drinks

Abstract

In contemporary, neoliberal contexts, individuals are compelled to display competent and ‘enterprising’ selves, to get ahead in ‘hustle culture’ and to prioritise their personal health/wellbeing and futures. Dominant drinking cultures that normalise binge drinking and ‘living in the moment’ sit at odds with such values, yet these tensions can be navigated through ‘responsible’ consumption, whereby consumers can continue to buy into dominant drinking cultures yet show restraint by drinking in moderation and/or participating in periods of abstinence. In recent years, an expanding market of ‘no-and low-alcohol’ (NoLo) drinks also presents increasing opportunities to negotiate new kinds of moderate drinking identities, take breaks from consumption or reconfigure relationships with alcohol entirely. Drawing on data from 15 interviews with regular NoLo drinkers, this article highlights the ways in which NoLo consumption is entangled with notions of the enterprising self in relation to health, choice/responsibility, productivity and the future. Using the consumption of NoLo drinks as a case study, the article contributes more widely to our understandings of how identities are negotiated and displayed through particular (non)consumption practices that take place in the present – but also construct the future self – in the face of neoliberal imperatives to be healthy and productive.