FYI.  By the way, the ATHG listserv group now has a hundred subscribers, a
surprise during the summer vacation months.  * David Fahey (Miami Univ.)
----------------------------Original message----------------------------
Ron copied to me your note on the Kettil Bruun Society and his
response.  Actually, Kettil was a Swedish-speaking Finn whose Finnish
was a bit rough, so you were not entirely wrong.  The two Geoffreys
-- Geoffrey Giles and Geoffrey Hunt -- were both at the most recent
annual "marketplace" meeting of the KBS -- in Porto last month, about
200 participants -- and might be able to wrote you a
historian-oriented account.  Historical papers are indeed in a
minority, but are very much welcomed.  The KBS also sponsors one or
two smaller thematic meetings each year -- usually about 50
participants -- and some of them have had a more substantial
historical orientation.
   KBS grew in 1987 out of two forerunners: the Alcohol Epidemiology
Section of ICAA (which indeed continues in rump form at ICAA
meetings, to keep the franchise) and the International Group for
Comparative Alcohol Studies, which in turn grew out of the
International Study of Alcohol Controls Experiences after ISACE ended
in 1981.  At the heart of the KBS are about 10 social science alcohol
research centres in almost as many countries, along with a lot of
individual scholars.  The "marketplace" meetings have scholars and
papers from more than 20 countries -- dominated, still, by what Harry
Levine calls the "temperance cultures".
   I'm not sure of the context of your note, so let me know if any
more would be useful. Cheers, Robin ([log in to unmask])