Conferences
21–23 August 2013, Aarhus, Denmark
Complexity: Researching alcohol and other drugs in a multiple world
The last decade has seen the idea of complexity gain force in social science and epidemiological research. As social problems of all kinds prove less amenable to change than is sometimes suggested by the reductionist demands of orthodox positivist approaches, theory and method have turned to ways of articulating the elusive, uncertain and complex.
For some, such as the science and technology studies scholars Annemarie Mol and John Law (2002), complexity means multiplicity rather than unity, realities rather than reality, distinct but overlapping worlds, logics and orders. Implicated, too, are questions about the relation between order and chaos, and the validity of binaries of any kind, including that of simplicity and complexity itself.
This conference offers a forum in which the issues and dilemmas of complexity in alcohol and other drug research can be explored. It welcomes research based on quantitative and qualitative methods, and encourages innovative use of methods, concepts and theoretical approaches. Following the conference, Contemporary Drug Problems, an interdisciplinary quarterly and one of the driving forces behind the conference, will publish a special issue featuring selected papers from the conference.
