James Nicholls
Datos Biográficos
| ID | 532564 |
|---|---|
| NOMBRE | James Nicholls |
| NOMBRES | James |
| APELLIDO | Nicholls |
| FIRMA | NICHOLLS J |
| AFILIACIONES | University of Stirling |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4638-1972 |
| VERIFICADO | Sí |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 25 |
| TOTAL DE CITAS | 15 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 25 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 0 |
| PRIMER AÑO DE PUBLICACIÓN | 2003 |
| AÑO MÁS RECIENTE DE PUBLICACIÓN | 2026 |
| ÍNDICE H | 3 |
The alcohol licensing system in Northern Ireland
Background The alcohol licensing system in Northern Ireland (NI) stipulates that a new pub or off-licence can only open if an existing pub or off-licence closes and ‘surrenders’ its licence. In 2022, the NI Department for Communities commissioned a statutory, independent review of this system. This paper summarizes key findings, highlighting suboptimal outcomes and identifying lessons for future licensing design.Methods A mixed-method study, incl…
Identifying innovative approaches to the temporal availability of alcohol in Great Britain—a policy analysis
Background In Great Britain, local authorities responsible for alcohol premises licensing produce a statement of licensing policy setting out how they intend to exercise their statutory licensing functions including on trading hours. We aimed to describe and compare these policies on alcohol trading hours, including their interpretation and application of laws and guidance.Methods Policies were obtained from the websites of all 366 local licensin…
Quantitative controls on the number and/or location of alcohol retail outlets
Quantitative controls on the number and/or location of alcohol retail outlets are widely used across the USA and Canada but vary significantly in structure and stringency. While some jurisdictions impose multiple controls, others apply none. Understanding these policy approaches provides insight into regulatory frameworks but does not indicate enforcement levels or public health impact. Further research could examine how these measures are implem…
How are bars and nightclubs in Scotland using extensions in late-night alcohol trading hours? Venue observation study
Extensions in late-night alcohol trading hours granted in two Scottish cities were not used consistently by venues due to lack of demand by customers. The late-night sale of alcohol to intoxicated customers was routine. Our findings challenge the assumption that later trading hours benefit the night-time economy and highlight the likelihood of associated alcohol-related harms
Liberal moralities and drug policy reform
Background While debates on drug policy express a range of ethical viewpoints, many are underpinned by core ideas drawn from liberal philosophy. Much recent analysis on the moral principles underpinning drug policy debates focuses on differences between reformers and supporters of the status quo. Less attention has been given to divergences among advocates for drug policy reform, which often hinge on the interpretation and application of liberal …
The complexity of stigma demands nuanced debate
Zombie drugs
Our study is the first to show that dehumanising 'zombie' framing frequently used in news reporting is associated with higher public stigma towards people who use drugs. News media is an important source of public education on drugs, so to avoid reinforcing stigma the use of dehumanising language and framing, such as 'zombie' metaphors, should be avoided. Organisations working to reduce stigma towards people who use drugs should encourage news ou…
Riding the wave or controlling the flow? Commentary on Room (2025) ‘Long waves of alcohol consumption and the Sustainable Development Goals’
Making sense of drug use and dependence—A scoping review of mass media interventions intended to reduce stigma towards people who use drugs
We found inconsistencies in approaches to reduce and measure stigma, potentially reflecting different motivations for intervention development. The primary motivation of many interventions was seemingly to promote drug service engagement and recovery
Effects of media representations of drug related deaths on public stigma and support for harm reduction
Drug related deaths (DRD) are at historically high levels in the United Kingdom (UK), but some approaches that have the potential to reduce risk of mortality remain controversial. Public support makes an important contribution to drug policy development but there are high levels of public stigma towards people who use drugs (PWUD), and this is partly shaped by media representations. We investigated whether depiction of the characteristics of dece…
Drug Consumption Rooms and Public Health Policy
There is widespread support for the introduction of Drug Consumption Rooms (DCRs) in Scotland as part of a policy response to record levels of drug-related harm. However, existing legal barriers are made more complex by the division of relevant powers between the UK and Scottish Governments. This paper reports on a national, qualitative study of key decision-makers in both local and national roles across Scotland. It explores views on the politic…
Temporary abstinence during Dry January
Background: Temporary alcohol abstinence conveys physiological benefits. Less well-known are its effects on well-being and general self-efficacy (GSE), and how use of support during alcohol abstinence challenges affects success rates.Methods: In this study, 4232 adults participating in ‘Dry January’ completed a baseline questionnaire and a 1-month follow-up questionnaire. Key follow-up variables related to whether respondents completed the abstin…
Paul Jennings, A History of Drink and the English, 1500–2000 . Abingdon
Implementing a Public Health Objective for Alcohol Premises Licensing in Scotland
The public health objective for alcohol premises licensing, established in Scotland in 2005, is unique globally. We explored how public health practitioners engaged with the licensing system following this change, and what helped or hindered their efforts. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 13 public health actors, audio-recorded, and analysed using an inductive framework approach. Many interviewees viewed the new objective as synonym…
The alcohol harm paradox
Deprived increased/higher drinkers are more likely than affluent counterparts to consume alcohol as part of a suite of health challenging behaviours including smoking, excess weight and poor diet/exercise. Together these can have multiplicative effects on risks of wholly (e.g. alcoholic liver disease) and partly (e.g. cancers) alcohol-related conditions. More binge drinking in deprived individuals will also increase risks of injury and heart dise…
Alcohol
Henry Yeomans, Alcohol and Moral Regulation
Public Health and Alcohol Licensing in the UK
This article discusses the role of public health in alcohol licensing in the UK, with a particular focus on the implementation of national legislation and guidance in local regulatory environments. It identifies a number of practical and theoretical challenges through an analysis of historical trends in licensing practice, recent policy developments, and key licensing decisions and appeals. There are strong historical precedents for a focus on st…
Everyday, Everywhere
AIMS: To provide a snapshot content analysis of social media marketing among leading alcohol brands in the UK, and to outline the implications for both regulatory policies and further research. METHODS: Using screengrab technology, the complete Facebook walls and Twitter timelines for 12 leading UK alcohol brands in November 2011 were captured and archived. A total of 701 brand-authored posts were identified and categorized using a thematic codin…
Time for reform? Alcohol policy and cultural change in England since 2000
Throughout history, alcohol policy has been tied to ideas of cultural change. In 2000, the New Labour government proposed deregulatory legislation that was designed, in part, to change British drinking cultures. However, implementation of the subsequent 2003 Licensing Act coincided with developments in alcohol retail and drinking behaviours which created widespread public concern. Government alcohol policy was also criticised by public health adv…
On the Origin and Progress of Temperance
In 1814, the British lawyer Basil Montagu published a collection of writings on drink entitled Some Enquiries into the Effects of Fermented Liquors. Montagu’s goal was to demonstrate that alcohol was harmful in all forms and his collection drew on a wide range of sources from classical myth to contemporary medical discourse. Although it was not widely read, Some Enquiries illustrates the extent to which alcohol use had been identified as a social…
Thinking Through Drinking
Vinum Britannicum
This article looks at public writing on alcohol in early modern England. It argues that the identification of drunkenness as a discrete social concern became more pronounced over this perio
Liberties and licences
This article looks at the ways in which discourse around alcohol has shaped, and been shaped by, British liberal thought. It discusses three key moments in which alcohol became prominent in public debates over individual rights, market freedoms and government intervention: the London ‘gin craze’, mid-19th-century arguments over the ‘Permissive Bill’ and recent concerns over ‘binge drinking’ and the 2003 Licensing Act. In addition to looking at ho…
Gin Lane Revisited
The massive increase in gin consumption which occurred in eighteenth-century London produced a marked shift in the cultural understanding of alcohol consumption. Prior to the formalization of addiction as a medical concept, gin consumption produced both sustained legal intervention and a wealth of concerned social commentary. This suggests that the medical construction of addiction is pre-dated by a social and political problematization of intoxi…
Liberties and licences
This article looks at the ways in which discourse around alcohol has shaped, and been shaped by, British liberal thought. It discusses three key moments in which alcohol became prominent in public debates over individual rights, market freedoms and government intervention: the London ‘gin craze’, mid-19th-century arguments over the ‘Permissive Bill’ and recent concerns over ‘binge drinking’ and the 2003 Licensing Act. In addition to looking at ho…
Public Health and Alcohol Licensing in the UK
This article discusses the role of public health in alcohol licensing in the UK, with a particular focus on the implementation of national legislation and guidance in local regulatory environments. It identifies a number of practical and theoretical challenges through an analysis of historical trends in licensing practice, recent policy developments, and key licensing decisions and appeals. There are strong historical precedents for a focus on st…
Vinum Britannicum
This article looks at public writing on alcohol in early modern England. It argues that the identification of drunkenness as a discrete social concern became more pronounced over this perio
Time for reform? Alcohol policy and cultural change in England since 2000
Throughout history, alcohol policy has been tied to ideas of cultural change. In 2000, the New Labour government proposed deregulatory legislation that was designed, in part, to change British drinking cultures. However, implementation of the subsequent 2003 Licensing Act coincided with developments in alcohol retail and drinking behaviours which created widespread public concern. Government alcohol policy was also criticised by public health adv…
Gin Lane Revisited
The massive increase in gin consumption which occurred in eighteenth-century London produced a marked shift in the cultural understanding of alcohol consumption. Prior to the formalization of addiction as a medical concept, gin consumption produced both sustained legal intervention and a wealth of concerned social commentary. This suggests that the medical construction of addiction is pre-dated by a social and political problematization of intoxi…
Liberties and licences
This article looks at the ways in which discourse around alcohol has shaped, and been shaped by, British liberal thought. It discusses three key moments in which alcohol became prominent in public debates over individual rights, market freedoms and government intervention: the London ‘gin craze’, mid-19th-century arguments over the ‘Permissive Bill’ and recent concerns over ‘binge drinking’ and the 2003 Licensing Act. In addition to looking at ho…
Vinum Britannicum
This article looks at public writing on alcohol in early modern England. It argues that the identification of drunkenness as a discrete social concern became more pronounced over this perio
Thinking Through Drinking
On the Origin and Progress of Temperance
In 1814, the British lawyer Basil Montagu published a collection of writings on drink entitled Some Enquiries into the Effects of Fermented Liquors. Montagu’s goal was to demonstrate that alcohol was harmful in all forms and his collection drew on a wide range of sources from classical myth to contemporary medical discourse. Although it was not widely read, Some Enquiries illustrates the extent to which alcohol use had been identified as a social…
Everyday, Everywhere
AIMS: To provide a snapshot content analysis of social media marketing among leading alcohol brands in the UK, and to outline the implications for both regulatory policies and further research. METHODS: Using screengrab technology, the complete Facebook walls and Twitter timelines for 12 leading UK alcohol brands in November 2011 were captured and archived. A total of 701 brand-authored posts were identified and categorized using a thematic codin…
Time for reform? Alcohol policy and cultural change in England since 2000
Throughout history, alcohol policy has been tied to ideas of cultural change. In 2000, the New Labour government proposed deregulatory legislation that was designed, in part, to change British drinking cultures. However, implementation of the subsequent 2003 Licensing Act coincided with developments in alcohol retail and drinking behaviours which created widespread public concern. Government alcohol policy was also criticised by public health adv…
Henry Yeomans, Alcohol and Moral Regulation
Public Health and Alcohol Licensing in the UK
This article discusses the role of public health in alcohol licensing in the UK, with a particular focus on the implementation of national legislation and guidance in local regulatory environments. It identifies a number of practical and theoretical challenges through an analysis of historical trends in licensing practice, recent policy developments, and key licensing decisions and appeals. There are strong historical precedents for a focus on st…
The alcohol harm paradox
Deprived increased/higher drinkers are more likely than affluent counterparts to consume alcohol as part of a suite of health challenging behaviours including smoking, excess weight and poor diet/exercise. Together these can have multiplicative effects on risks of wholly (e.g. alcoholic liver disease) and partly (e.g. cancers) alcohol-related conditions. More binge drinking in deprived individuals will also increase risks of injury and heart dise…
Alcohol
Implementing a Public Health Objective for Alcohol Premises Licensing in Scotland
The public health objective for alcohol premises licensing, established in Scotland in 2005, is unique globally. We explored how public health practitioners engaged with the licensing system following this change, and what helped or hindered their efforts. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 13 public health actors, audio-recorded, and analysed using an inductive framework approach. Many interviewees viewed the new objective as synonym…
Paul Jennings, A History of Drink and the English, 1500–2000 . Abingdon
Temporary abstinence during Dry January
Background: Temporary alcohol abstinence conveys physiological benefits. Less well-known are its effects on well-being and general self-efficacy (GSE), and how use of support during alcohol abstinence challenges affects success rates.Methods: In this study, 4232 adults participating in ‘Dry January’ completed a baseline questionnaire and a 1-month follow-up questionnaire. Key follow-up variables related to whether respondents completed the abstin…
Drug Consumption Rooms and Public Health Policy
There is widespread support for the introduction of Drug Consumption Rooms (DCRs) in Scotland as part of a policy response to record levels of drug-related harm. However, existing legal barriers are made more complex by the division of relevant powers between the UK and Scottish Governments. This paper reports on a national, qualitative study of key decision-makers in both local and national roles across Scotland. It explores views on the politic…
Effects of media representations of drug related deaths on public stigma and support for harm reduction
Drug related deaths (DRD) are at historically high levels in the United Kingdom (UK), but some approaches that have the potential to reduce risk of mortality remain controversial. Public support makes an important contribution to drug policy development but there are high levels of public stigma towards people who use drugs (PWUD), and this is partly shaped by media representations. We investigated whether depiction of the characteristics of dece…
Making sense of drug use and dependence—A scoping review of mass media interventions intended to reduce stigma towards people who use drugs
We found inconsistencies in approaches to reduce and measure stigma, potentially reflecting different motivations for intervention development. The primary motivation of many interventions was seemingly to promote drug service engagement and recovery
Liberal moralities and drug policy reform
Background While debates on drug policy express a range of ethical viewpoints, many are underpinned by core ideas drawn from liberal philosophy. Much recent analysis on the moral principles underpinning drug policy debates focuses on differences between reformers and supporters of the status quo. Less attention has been given to divergences among advocates for drug policy reform, which often hinge on the interpretation and application of liberal …
The complexity of stigma demands nuanced debate
Zombie drugs
Our study is the first to show that dehumanising 'zombie' framing frequently used in news reporting is associated with higher public stigma towards people who use drugs. News media is an important source of public education on drugs, so to avoid reinforcing stigma the use of dehumanising language and framing, such as 'zombie' metaphors, should be avoided. Organisations working to reduce stigma towards people who use drugs should encourage news ou…
Riding the wave or controlling the flow? Commentary on Room (2025) ‘Long waves of alcohol consumption and the Sustainable Development Goals’
The alcohol licensing system in Northern Ireland
Background The alcohol licensing system in Northern Ireland (NI) stipulates that a new pub or off-licence can only open if an existing pub or off-licence closes and ‘surrenders’ its licence. In 2022, the NI Department for Communities commissioned a statutory, independent review of this system. This paper summarizes key findings, highlighting suboptimal outcomes and identifying lessons for future licensing design.Methods A mixed-method study, incl…
Identifying innovative approaches to the temporal availability of alcohol in Great Britain—a policy analysis
Background In Great Britain, local authorities responsible for alcohol premises licensing produce a statement of licensing policy setting out how they intend to exercise their statutory licensing functions including on trading hours. We aimed to describe and compare these policies on alcohol trading hours, including their interpretation and application of laws and guidance.Methods Policies were obtained from the websites of all 366 local licensin…
Quantitative controls on the number and/or location of alcohol retail outlets
Quantitative controls on the number and/or location of alcohol retail outlets are widely used across the USA and Canada but vary significantly in structure and stringency. While some jurisdictions impose multiple controls, others apply none. Understanding these policy approaches provides insight into regulatory frameworks but does not indicate enforcement levels or public health impact. Further research could examine how these measures are implem…
How are bars and nightclubs in Scotland using extensions in late-night alcohol trading hours? Venue observation study
Extensions in late-night alcohol trading hours granted in two Scottish cities were not used consistently by venues due to lack of demand by customers. The late-night sale of alcohol to intoxicated customers was routine. Our findings challenge the assumption that later trading hours benefit the night-time economy and highlight the likelihood of associated alcohol-related harms
Political science (14 obras) · Sociology (13 obras) · Medicine (11 obras) · Psychology (11 obras) · Substance Abuse Treatment and Outcomes (10 obras) · Law (9 obras) · Law (8 obras) · Public health (7 obras) · Business (6 obras) · Psychiatry (6 obras)