ABSTRACT
In this chapter, I draw on mixed-methods qualitative research conducted ‘with’ young people, living in Chorlton and Wythenshawe, Manchester, UK. I show that a care strategy predominantly talked about by young women under the legal drinking age in Wythenshawe and Chorlton involves sober, or less inebriated, friends supervising heavily intoxicated friends. Being a (relatively) sober minder is something young people commonly undertake; it can be pre-planned, or occur without being planned as a result of analysing the drunkenness and drunken behaviour of friends. For many young women, physical co-presence is important for their caring geographies. However, some young women make evident that caring relationships can transcend face-to-face acts. Digital technologies, such as mobile phones, can facilitate care about embodied experiences beyond one’s immediate space and time. Technology does not mean that physical care is being supplanted by caring at a distance. Rather, technology supplements proximate care; the caring gaze mediated through technology enables bodily transformations in ‘real space’. Whilst friends expect that they should care for each other when drunk, the provision of care within friendship must be managed carefully, so as not to intrude on the autonomy of the friend who does the caring. However, equally, young women recognised that not acting in line with the role of ‘carer’ or ‘protector’ can be detrimental to friendship bonds.
