BACK TO KBS HOME PAGE
.
S.

See also: Demers A; Garretsen H; Room R; Rossow I; Ugland T. (2004) Kettil Bruun Society for Social and Epidemiological Research on Alcohol. Addiction 99, 161–164.


Aims and activities:

The aim of the Kettil Bruun Society is to promote social and epidemiological research which fosters a comparative understanding of the social aspects of alcohol use and alcohol problems.  We aim also to promote a spirit of international cooperation.
.
Our activities include:
. .
A Short Description:
.
The Kettil Bruun Society for Social and Epidemiological Research on Alcohol was formed in 1987 to bring together three existing traditions of international work.

The first of these is an Annual Alcohol Epidemiology Symposium, held for a week each year, usually in early June.   The first symposium was held in 1975 as part of a larger meeting of the International Council on Alcohol and Addictions; the symposium began operating as a freestanding meeting in 1982.  At the Symposium, the aim is to maximize discussion.  Papers are precirculated and introduced rather than read, and participants are assigned to give prepared commentaries.  Papers on any topic broadly related to the Society's scope are welcomed; "epidemiology" is broadly construed to include also such strands as policy studies, historical and ethnographic research, cultural studies, and experimental social psychology.  Symposia normally have 150-200 participants from more than 20 countries.

The second tradition is of thematic meetings, with each focusing on a particular topic from an international perspective. On average two such meetings are held each year, usually for 4 or 5 days and with 30-50 participants.  The tradition of such meetings began under the sponsorship of the former International Group for Comparative Alcohol Studies (IGCAS) in 1982.

The third tradition is of collaborative international research projects, which operate autonomously under the umbrella of the Kettil Bruun Society.  The 1973-1975 "purple book" project led by Kettil Bruun (see below) might be regarded as the first of these, and IGCAS was the third.  There have since been a number of such projects.  One current example is the International Research Group on Gender and Alcohol (IRGGA), which meets each year before the KBS June Symposium.

The Kettil Bruun Society operates under a set of By-Laws and is based on individual membership, with a modest annual fee.  Full membership is limited to researchers in the field, while others may become associate members.  Officers and a Coordinating Committee are elected by members, with provisions ensuring diverse national representation.  Members receive a Circular newsletter from the Society.

The Kettil Bruun Society also sponsors a listserve for those interested in discussions oriented to the society's aims and activities.
.

Who was Kettil Bruun?
.
Kettil Bruun (1924-1985) served as the Director of the Social Research Institute of Alcohol Studies in Helsinki from 1955 until 1968 and as Secretary of the Finnish Foundation for Alcohol Studies from 1955 until 1980. He held a professorship for three years at Stockholm University in Sweden and served in a number of expert capacities for the World Health Organization. In 1971 Kettil Bruun was the first social scientist to receive the Jellinek Award, which is given to the person deemed to have made, during the preceding years, the greatest scholarly contribution to human knowledge of problems relating to alcohol, in their designated research area.

The vitality of Finnish alcohol research was due in great part to Kettil Bruun’s creativity and inspiration and his work won wide international recognition.

Kettil Bruun was a pioneer in many areas of alcohol social research.  During the 1960s he published studies in which he described and critically reviewed official management and control of deviant behaviour.  His approach was to focus attention at the level of policy, rather than on the problem individual.  Kettil Bruun subsequently headed the team of authors which in 1975 released the study Alcohol Control Policies in a Public Health Perspective.  The 'purple book', as it became known, made a profound impression on the international discussion of alcohol control policies and research in this field.   Kettil Bruun was also known for his innovative use of a range of research designs and methods.  Not only did he conduct experiments, but he used interview material, official statistics, participant observation, fiction, expert interviews and archive records.  He completely ignored the academic controversy about 'hard' and 'soft' methods.   At the time of Kettil Bruun’s death, Klaus Makela1 and Robin Room2 both paid tribute to his skills as a facilitator and team leader.  He attracted research teams combining many age groups, scientific fields and cultures, and had an exceptional talent for eliciting collective scientific thinking from the most unlikely combinations.  He was committed to collegial work in a community of scholars and to putting knowledge to use in the world. ..

1Makela, K. (1986) Kettil Bruun: a scientist of conviction, Addiction, 81, 313-314.
2Room. R. (1986) Kettil Bruun, 1924-1985: an appreciation, Drinking and Drug Practices Surveyor, No.21, August.
.
.
BACK TO KBS HOME PAGE.............