Drug use and the constitution of homo politicus in Swedish politics 1966-1979.

Background: The emergence of the drug user as a political problem in Sweden during the 1960s presented politicians with the problem of how to fit this new character into the existing democratic order. The aim of this article is to examine how Swedish politics sought to regulate democratic participation by establishing norms that conditioned who is recognized as a political subject as well as what counts as political speech and action.

Methods: The analysis is based on a close reading of parliamentary debates, political motions, and public reports and covers the period 1966-1979.

How Covid-19 restrictions affected young people's well-being and drinking practices: Analyzing interviews with a socio-material approach.

Background: The Covid-19 restrictions - as they made young people's practices in their everyday life visible for reflection and reformation - provide a productive opportunity to study how changing conditions affected young people's well-being and drinking practices.

Methods: The data is based on qualitative interviews with 18- to 24-year-old Swedes (n=33) collected in the Autumn 2021. By drawing on the socio-material approach, the paper traces actants, assemblages and trajectories that moved the participants towards increased or decreased well-being during the lockdown.

Becoming Safe, Legal, Mature, Moderate, and Self-Reflexive: Trajectories of Drinking and Abstinence among Young People.

In recent years, a vast body of research has investigated trends of declining alcohol consumption among youths. However, the extent to which restrictive-youth approaches towards drinking are maintained into adulthood is unclear. The aim of this study is to explore how young people's relation to alcohol changes over time.

The constitution of the alcoholic self, communicative processes and administrative practices: On the varied uses of four terms denoting problematic drinking.

Aims: The aims of this article were to examine the various meanings ascribed by three stakeholder groups - social workers, journalists and individuals with previous experience of problematic drinking - to four widely used terms in the alcohol field - alcoholism, alcohol dependence, alcohol misuse and risky drinking - and to examine how variations in the definitions of these terms correspond to specific pragmatic needs arising within different practices.

Design: We conducted focus-group interviews with 15 individuals from the above-mentioned stakeholder groups. We identified three practices, we identified three practices which shaped the meanings ascribed to the four terms denoting problematic drinking.

'Social health', 'physical health', and well-being: Analysing with bourdieusian concepts the interplay between the practices of heavy drinking and exercise among young people.

Background: The article examines the interplay between the practices of heavy drinking and exercise among young people. The comparison helps to clarify why young people are currently drinking less than earlier and how the health-related discourses and activities are modifying young people's heavy drinking practices.

Methods: The data is based on interviews (n = 56) in Sweden among 15-17-year-olds and 18-19-year-olds.

Why are young people drinking less than earlier? Identifying and specifying social mechanisms with a pragmatist approach.

Recent surveys have found a strong decrease in alcohol consumption among young people and this trend has been identified in European countries, Australia and North America. Previous research suggests that the decline in alcohol consumption may be explained by changes in parenting style, increased use of social media, changes in gender identities or a health and fitness trend. We use qualitative interviews with drinking and non-drinking young people from Sweden (N = 49) to explore in what way and in what kinds of contexts these explanations may hold true and how they alone or together may explain declining alcohol consumption among young people.

Politics of prevention: The emergence of prevention science.

Background: This article critically examines the political dimension of prevention science by asking how it constructs the problems for which prevention is seen as the solution and how it enables the monitoring and control of these problems. It also seeks to examine how prevention science has established a sphere for legitimate political deliberation and which kinds of statements are accepted as legitimate within this sphere.

Methods: The material consists of 14 publications describing and discussing the goals, concepts, promises and problems of prevention science.