Abstract

AMEZCUA, Manuel  and  PALACIOS RAMIREZ, José. Youth, alcohol and risk: a critical view from the socio-cultural theories. Index Enferm [online]. 2014, vol.23, n.3, pp.149-152. ISSN 1699-5988.  https://dx.doi.org/10.4321/S1132-12962014000200007.

This work focuses its interest in the difficult relationships between health and social disciplines when facing a complex problem as alcohol consumption. The question is whether the scientific practice has the capacity to reduce risks, or on the contrary it is necessary to protect ourselves from the dangers which it produces. Social scientists complain about the limited use that medicine makes of the vast existing heritage about the cultural-based alcoholism. At the same time scientists criticize the inefficiency of biomedical approaches. In this article, we highlight the importance of a contextualized analysis about the alcohol consumption that takes into account the functions and consequences from the social structure that gives it collective and subjective significance. Current paradoxes in the social government of dependencies are manifested. Looking to the phenomenon of collective consumption of alcohol among young people, we suggest alternative approaches that incorporate the meanings and intervention capacity of the subjects themselves.

Keywords : Social construction of the risk; Collective alcohol consumption; Youth and Health; Health Anthropology.