This conference seeks to explore the radical aspects of the avoidance of alcohol. We are looking for contributions from a range of perspectives, places and periods and from both academic and non-academic contributors.
Of the many anti-drink movements across the world, one of the most influential, teetotalism, started in Preston in 1832. We are proud to honour this history by holding the first international conference on temperance in Preston to consider it across the centuries to the present day. Alcohol management remains a key social issue; the many active support groups, dry bars, and third sector organisations in our society take varying stances on alcohol and temperance.
We invite academics, students, professional and voluntary workers with a focus on control of or abstinence from alcohol to join us. We aim for a wide range of angles from the field of support for alcohol issues, and groups or individuals with an interest in how societies approach alcohol, from around the world – please come and present, listen, publicise, share ideas and strategies, discuss, and learn…
Suggested topics:
• Temperance and labour movements
• Gender and drink/temperance
• International perspectives and influences
• Social improvement and temperance
• Contemporary and historical images
• Historical perspectives and contemporary debates
• Alcohol as a political issue
• Policy making and alcohol pressure groups
• Narratives of recovery
• Social/cultural attitudes to alcohol
• Literature and alcohol
• Anti-temperance
