Anna Petran

I was born in 1981 in Göttingen (Western Germany) and studied social sciences and gender studies at the University of Hannover. From September 2005 until April 2006 I spent a semester at the University of Bologna. In my diploma thesis I discussed the reach of social constructionist perspectives on the body on the basis of an empirical research about the "construction and experience of sex/gender in the context of showjumping". My academic focus was to fructify constructionist theories for feminist critics of the naturalizations of sex and gender. In my PhD-project I will retain this intention, considering new modes of the socialization of bodies in the era of globalization and their impact.

PhD-Project
"Binge-drinking" as an adolescent practice of self-creation

In my thesis, I would like to examine the phenomenon of binge drinking as a practice of construction and experience of the adolescent self at the turn of the twentieth century. In 2003, the European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs (ESPAD) points out an increase in binge drinking practice among European youth. As a new, highly risky practice of intoxication, binge drinking differs in crucial points from drug consumption patterns previously studied. The actors in the national health care systems force and use the public's excitement about binge drinking to enforce the notion of risk awareness and individual responsibility in the population. The adolescent's refusal sheds light on a central problem of neo-liberal power techniques: the paradox of  voluntary compulsion. The new trend towards risky practices among teenagers raises the question of how the society's compulsion to individually responsible invention of the self effects practices of individualization at adolescence. Following the examination of contemporary ways of subjectivization and the body-sociological elaborations about the performance of bodily practices, I will consider adolescent practices of body, self and consumption. The central question of my thesis is: How does the practice of binge drinking act on and stylize social norms? Through a group discussion, and, if applicable, subsequent individual interviews I hope to arrive at a deeper understanding about the topics of fun, success, freedom/individual responsibility, and gender that have been brought up by previous studies. For sociology, the study of binge drinking promises enlightening views on present bodily practices of collectivization and individualization of young people.

Contact
Email: anna.petran [at] univie.ac.at
Phone: + 43 (0) 1 4277 - 49465