SoRAD, the Centre for Social Research on Alcohol and Drugs at Stockholm University, conducts research on consumption patterns relating to alcohol and drug use and their consequences, including social and cultural.
The appointment of a SoRAD research group as a FAS centre will now give the researchers an opportunity to bring an even broader sociological perspective to their work. What does society for instance consider normal and deviant in terms of alcohol and drug use?
“One thing we want to look at is where society chooses to draw the line and consequently elects to lay the problem,” says Professor Börje Olsson, project leader for the new centre. “Ultimately it’s a matter of what measures you implement and what consequences they have for the person who is singled out. Do the measures entrench a bad situation or are they helpful?”
He believes that measures offered by society have to be studied. For instance, what impact does it have that some types of abuse are handled primarily through the legal system while others are dealt with by the social and healthcare systems, and that only a small number benefit from the care that is offered?
“We know that the vast majority of those who change their alcohol and drug habits do so of their own accord and without help from the care providers,” he says. “We want to study how this comes about and how the processes could be supported. We also need to examine who receives care today, and what it means.”
“There is no single most effective measure for reducing the negative effects of excessive consumption. We believe you have to understand the various mechanisms in combination if you want to bring about change.”
His hope is that research in coming years will provide a broad understanding of why individuals are affected differently by their use of alcohol and drugs and improve our insight into the consequences of different strategies developed by society to address these problems.
Börje Olsson and his colleagues also want to contribute to theory development and new empirical knowledge relating to sociological research on alcohol and drugs. He considers it especially important to combine more traditional epidemiological research, based on large volumes of data and various forms of statistical analysis, with qualitative analyses of e.g. different policy approaches and different forms of social categorisation.
Text: Sara Bergqvist Månsson
FAS centre funding: SEK5 million annually.
For further information: 
, www.sorad.su.se
