Update on the conscious clubbing collaboration

Dr Emma L Davies is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at Oxford Brookes University, UK.  In this article, she updates us on a project that started as a result of a post on this blog. On the 22nd June 2016, I published a post on this blog called ‘Reflections on sober raving: alcohol free fun for further research? This post is about what happened next.

The post that started it all

The original post was about alcohol-free events that involve music and dancing, often described as ‘sober raves’ or ‘conscious-clubbing’ events. At conscious-clubbing events, the experiences are enjoyed without alcohol and other drugs. The term conscious-clubbing puts this kind of event in opposition to clubs and festivals where alcohol and other drugs are used to enhance experiences and interactions between people. A wide range of different types of events can be considered ‘conscious-clubbing’ and people have enjoyed these for many years for spiritual reasons and to improve wellness.  However, our current focus was on early morning raves, and evening events that might appeal to a student population. Continue reading

Stay Safe @ Uni: Exploring students’ views about safety and sexual consent

In this post, Dr Emma L Davies, Lecturer in Psychology at Oxford Brookes University, shares details of an exciting new project to inform prevention activities addressing sexual violence in University settings. The project takes place in collabration with Dr Sarah Jayne Camp, Psychology Demonstrator at Oxford Brookes University, and Anna-Sherlock Smith MSc, Independent Researcher. Emma explains why this work is so important and is also able to present initial findings from this new research.

How the project started

In 2013, I attended a talk by Laura Bates, founder of Everyday Sexism, where she discussed the problem of sexual assault on university campuses. Colleagues and I felt that we wanted to do something to explore these issues further. However, at the time, I was writing up my PhD thesis and searching for employment and so it was put on the back burner for a while. Last September, a chance encounter with the Head of Campus Security led to a conversation about what approach we should take to tackle issues around sexual harassment and safety on nights out. Continue reading

Reflections on sober raving: alcohol free fun for further research?

Dr Emma Davies is a lecturer in the Department of Psychology, Social Work and Public Health at Oxford Brookes University.  In this article, she provides some reflections on alcohol free events, such as sober raves, as a topic for research in drug and alcohol misuse.

Background

Strategies for reducing drug and alcohol misuse tend to focus on encouraging people to either stop or cut down in order to reduce harms.  But substance use is often driven by the pursuit of pleasure, rather than by the avoidance of harm (Global Drug Survey, 2015; Hutton, 2012), and drugs and alcohol are present in many social situations.  People are very often already aware of the risks associated with their behaviour, but on balance they decide it is worth the risk to have a good time.  Furthermore, and especially in social situations where alcohol is flowing, people’s good intentions often fail to map onto their behaviours (Sheeran, 2002).

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