Cultural Differences in Alcohol Consumption: The State of the Art and New Perspectives on Drinking Culture Research

This chapter describes perspectives on studying cultural differences in alcohol consumption and reviews the relevant literature. After introducing the concept of culture and the main approaches used to study drinking cultures, different conceptualisations of such cultures are discussed. The chapter includes a systematic review of the recent literature on drinking cultures. It ends with a discussion of strengths and weaknesses of existing literature on drinking cultures, gaps in the field and directions for future research.