Conference at Cardiff Metropolitan University December 12th-13th 2013

‘Despite recent advances, academic studies of alcohol still frequently struggle to reconcile the individual, social and cultural pleasures and benefits of drinking and drunkeness with concerns for public order, health and well-being and social policy. Drinking practices are diverse and are spatially and culturally defined. What we drink, where we drink, who we drink with and, indeed, when we decide not to drink may all be informed by our identity as constituted through social class, gender, ethnicity, sexuality, age, religion and (dis)ability.

The conference brings together academics and researchers working in issues relating to alcohol and drinking to explore these ‘drinking dilemmas’ from a range of theoretical and methodological perspectives. Topics to be covered include: Drinking biographies and alcohol; Alcohol, Children and Family; Drink and National Identity; Addiction, Treatment and Recovery; Alcohol Use within Subcultures; Public/Private Drinking Spaces; Rural/Urban Drinking Spaces; Drinking, Gender and Sexuality; Alternatives and Abstinence; Drink, Migration and Diaspora; Alcohol, Work and Occupational Identity.

Keynote Speakers

Prof Gil Valentine (University of Sheffield)

Dr Mark Jayne (University of Manchester)

Prof Robert Hollands (Newcastle University)

BSA Alcohol Study Group

http://www.britsoc.co.uk/specialisms/alcohol.htm