Alcohol’s Harm To Others – Perceptions, Policies, Approaches

 
Thematic meeting of the Kettil Bruun Society: Alcohol’s harm to others – perceptions, policies and approaches

“Harm to others” has lately received global interest as a loosely defined, overarching concept in alcohol research. It covers well-known harms and costs to intimates, bystanders, strangers, professionals and social institutions, but also offers the potential for new perspectives.

Rather than talking about separate types of alcohol-related harm, such as mistreated children, insecurity in public and private settings, criminality, loss of person-years and cost of treatment, the concept of alcohol’s harm to others generates information about social relations involved in alcohol-related harm in private and public settings.

The conference focuses especially on historical, cultural and societal differences and on the concept’s added value in understanding and developing policies and cultural change. The program will be organised around the following six main themes:

• History and theory of the concept “harm to others”, studies on social movements related to the concept and their impact.
• Methodological approaches, strengths and weaknesses.
• Harm to families and to other private relations. Empirical analyses of the experiences of the various categories of “others” (individuals, demographic groups, members of institutions and people in different private roles).
• “Others” in public spheres such as work places, public spaces and traffic.
• Burden to the society and institutional responses: studies on service systems, professionals’ capacity, social insurances, disability costs, reproductive problems, violence and other crimes.