ABSTRACT
Temporary Sobriety Initiatives (TSI), coordinated periods of sobriety undertaken with a philanthropic purpose, both draw on the traditions and distance themselves from earlier temperance movements. They emulate their forerunners in their international reach, albeit one most felt in the English-speaking world, but spread from one country to another in thanks to twenty-first century technology, principally social media and existing philanthropic networks among alcohol and drug education and cancer charities. Although TSI have been at pains to shun the moralising reputation of temperance campaigns, they have nonetheless taken up many of the underlying premises and even forms of both well-known and less familiar temperance initiatives. Rebranded and refashioned to suit neoliberal concerns around health, productivity and purposeful philanthropy, TSI show themselves to be neo-temperance initiatives for the twenty-first century.
