Problematizations in alcohol policy: WHO's "alcohol problems"

Abstract

This article examines how the issue of alcohol use has been problematized using past and current World Health Organization reports and associated publications as illustrations. The 2010 Global Strategy to Reduce the Harmful Use of Alcohol serves as a salient example. Applying an approach to policy analysis called ‘‘What’s the Problem Represented to be?’’ this article highlights grounding presuppositions in selected alcohol policies and policy proposals. Particular attention is directed to the genesis and continually evolving and changing key concept ‘‘alcohol problems’’ (or ‘‘alcohol-related problems’’ and other variations). The objective is to raise questions about the implications of public health frameworks of meaning around alcohol policy for how governing takes place and for governed subjects. On the basis of this analysis, this article signals the importance of interrogating the meaning and role of taken-for-granted categories of analysis.